Mom and Dad Know Best?: Understanding the Link Between Parental Advice and Inequality in College

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Abstract

College is often a tumultuous period for emerging adults, filled with shifting family relationships, adjustment to adult responsibilities, and changes in psychological well-being for many of them. During this time, many students turn to their mothers and fathers for advice and guidance. But access to such support is not evenly distributed along gender, social class, and racial/ethnic lines, and this may have an impact on college outcomes. This paper investigates whether less advantaged college students tend to discuss their educational, work, and family plans with their mothers and fathers more or less than their more advantaged peers. Furthermore, the paper examines which types of advice and guidance—and from whom, mothers or fathers—predict academic success and psychological well-being in college. The data are from the Transition into Adulthood Supplement to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID-TAS).

Author

• Tanya Rouleau Whitworth, University of Massachusetts-Amherst