title: Student Debt Spans Generations: Characteristics of Parents Who Borrow to Pay for Their Children's College Education.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Discussions of student debt often overlook the debt parents take on to pay for their children's education. We identify characteristics of parents with child-related educational debt among the late baby boom cohort.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data come from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, a nationally representative sample of individuals born between 1957 and 1964. We restrict our sample to parents who had any children aged ≥17 and answered questions on educational debt during midlife (n = 6,562). Craggit models estimated (a) having any child-related educational debt and (b) the amount of debt owed among debtors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Black parents and parents with more education, higher income, and higher net worth were more likely to report child-related educational debt than White parents and parents with no degree, low-income, or negative net worth. Among debtors, high-income parents had more debt than low-income parents.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings suggest concerns about the student debt crisis should extend to aging parents.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia.
authors.forename: Katrina M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Walsemann
authors.affiliation: Davis School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.
authors.forename: Jennifer A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Ailshire
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D016901:Intergenerational Relations / Q000208:ethnology; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010287:Parent-Child Relations / Q000208:ethnology; D010290:Parents / Q000193:education* / Q000523:psychology*; D012944:Social Support; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014146:Training Support / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States; D044465:White People; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Income; Race/ethnicity; Wealth