Parental Involvement in College Planning and Students' Likelihood of College Enrollment

• In Event: 4167 - Section on Children and Youth Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Children & Youth Roundtable 7: Educational Disparities

Abstract

Using four waves of data from the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS), I examine the influence of parental investments in students’ schooling on their likelihood of enrolling in two-year and four-year colleges. College enrollment is considered a multi-stage and dynamic process, and likewise, parental investment in adolescents’ schooling should be measured as a sequential process to take into account that inputs at different times can lead to potentially different outcomes in college attendance. I focus both on general investments parents make in their child’s schooling early in high school and their involvement in planning for college during the later years as students prepare to graduate. In particular, I test whether involvement at a certain time point is important, or whether the overall amount of input regardless of the timing and type is all that matters. Further, I use advanced IPTW methods to control for factors like SES, race, and academic achievement.

Author

• Kailey C. White, University of Chicago