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Citation

Martin, Terrance, Lua . The Effect of Student Loans on Parental Views of Education Financing. Journal of Financial Planning 33 (5): 4655.

Most parents decide to save when their child is six years from entering college (McDonough and Calderone 2006). The majority claim they do not save earlier because they cannot afford it (Souleles 2000). Enabling parents to financially prepare for the child’s post-secondary education requires improving parents’ financial knowledge and access to these financial services (Johnson and Sherraden 2007). Parents often rely on college websites and counselors to supplement their financial knowledge; however, the quality of information varies and tends to be lower quality for those in lower socioeconomic backgrounds (Dynarski and Scott-Clayton 2013).

Cunningham and Santiago (2008) found that in the 2003 2004 period, Asians and Hispanics had a lower probability of borrowing when compared to black and white students.

Volkwein, Szelest, Cabrera, and Napierski-Prancl (1998) used data from the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study to explore the factors that affected student loan defaulting among different racial/ethnic groups. By running payday loans Pascagoula no checking account logistic regressions, they found that Hispanics and blacks showed lower levels of degree completion and academic achievement when compared to whites, and had almost twice the number of children and twice the rate of divorce. The authors concluded that these factors affect the ability of black and Hispanic students to pay off their loans.

Methodology

Marital status. Marital status is included in the model because it affects the financial support a parent can grant his or her child. Based on the human capital theory, divorced parents may be more financially constrained than married parents. The models use the dichotomous variable married. If they answered never married or other, the variable takes on the numerical value 0; otherwise it takes the value 1.

There were percent of respondents with a college degree percent of them did not have student debt, and percent had student debt. This research found that there is an association between having a college degree and having student debt.

Conclusion

Financial planners should also educate their clients on managing the expectations of their children. A Journal of Financial Planning article4 stressed the importance of discussing college education and funding with children. Setting expectations about the amount of funding parents are willing to offer and the amount of loans that are reasonable are important factors parents should consider.

Callender, Claire, and Jonathan Jackson. 2005. Does the Fear of Debt Deter Students from Higher Education? Journal of Social Policy 34 (4): 509540.

Nam, Yunju, Youngmi Kim, Margaret Clancy, Robert Zager, and Michael Sherraden. 2013. Do Child Development Accounts Promote Account Holding, Saving, and Asset Accumulation for Children’s Future? Evidence from a Statewide Randomized Experiment. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 32 (1): 633.