How Student Loans Add an Additional Economic Stress to Families Through Time

• In Event: 3213 - Problems in Educational Decision-Making

Abstract

This study uses qualitative data to investigate how having student loans effect families. Through interviews with sixty people currently working as lawyers in the US I found student loans become an additional factor in negotiating family resources. The necessity or existence of student loans had the ability to create financial stress on the family unit, even when the student loan allowed for higher incomes and would be deemed a good financial “investment.” I found three primary life events in which student loans became additional factors in negotiating family resources. First, when individuals negotiated how to pay for higher education with their parents, second when individuals with student loans began looking for life partners and third when individuals tried to plan and negotiate with their partner and children regarding how to pay for their children’s subsequent education while also saving for retirement. By showing the non- monetary ways in which student loans affect family life, this study reveals that student loans should be studied more broadly to better understand how they can become barriers to family cohesion.

Author

• Abby Jean Stivers, SUNY Albany