This project examines the effect of student debt on the family relationships in the period of emerging adulthood after college and how families negotiate issues around student debt. This project asks two questions: (1) How does student debt shape family relationships in the period of emerging adulthood after college? (2) How do families manage the experience of indebtedness and repayment together? Data collection will be through two interviews 12 months apart with recent students, a monthly diary survey over the course of the year for these recent students, and an interview with their parents. Findings will be relevant to debates regarding reform of the US higher education financing system and access to and persistence in higher education.
The data consist primarily of interviews with about 100 recent college leavers and their parents. The young adult interviewees are recent attendees at two colleges that primarily serve in-state populations and include non-completers, first-generation students, and students with different majors. Interview topics are college life and parental support in college; the debt repayment situation; relationships between parents and young adult children, particularly as they relate to money and financial support; adult transitions; current orientation to debt; the role of salient other family members, particularly siblings; and what, if anything, parents and young adults feel they might owe each other now or in the future. Young adult respondents are interviewed twice. Between interviews, they are invited to participate in short, monthly surveys that anchor follow-up interviews and allow for the analysis of changing relationships and financial situations over time.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
