Sponsor
The author disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was supported by the Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Award from the National Science Foundation (SES-1801820).
Published In
Socius
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-2022
Subjects
Student loans -- Case studies, Student loans -- Law and legislation
Abstract
Previous studies suggest that a college degree is the great equalizer leveling the playing field. However, the rapidly growing educational debt of college graduates might restrict their life chances throughout adulthood, particularly for those raised in socioeconomically disadvantaged families. This study uses data from the National Survey of College Graduates to examine whether parents’ socioeconomic status is related to their children’s student loan repayment after graduation. Holding the amount borrowed for completing higher education constant, college graduates with less educated parents hold a larger amount of educational debt in adulthood compared with their counterparts with more educated parents. The association between family background and student loan repayment remains significant with the addition of controls for various covariates related to college graduates’ education, occupation, income, and other labor market outcomes. This study suggests that educational debt burdens imposed on individual college graduates limit the meritocratic power of higher education.
Rights
Copyright (c) 2022 The Authors
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Locate the Document
DOI
10.1177/23780231211072683
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/38469
Citation Details
Oh, B. (2022). Do Parents Matter for Student Loan Repayment after Graduation?. Socius, 8, 23780231211072683.