Student Debt Spans Generations: Characteristics of Parents Who Borrow to Pay for Their Children's College Education.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Discussions of student debt often overlook the debt parents take on to pay for their children's education. We identify characteristics of parents with child-related educational debt among the late baby boom cohort.

Method

Data come from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, a nationally representative sample of individuals born between 1957 and 1964. We restrict our sample to parents who had any children aged ≥17 and answered questions on educational debt during midlife (n = 6,562). Craggit models estimated (a) having any child-related educational debt and (b) the amount of debt owed among debtors.

Results

Black parents and parents with more education, higher income, and higher net worth were more likely to report child-related educational debt th

SUBMITTER: Walsemann KM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5926980 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature