By Carol Church, Writer, Family Album
Reviewed by Martie Gillen, PhD, Department of Family, Youth, and Community Sciences, University of Florida
When I imagine my kids going off to college someday, I feel optimistic and excited for them. I do worry, though, about the rise in the cost of tuition, and wonder whether they’ll make it to graduation day without significant debt. Starting out in the working world with a heavy load of loans can be limiting.
In fact, some journalists have suggested that today’s college graduates feel so burdened by their college debt that they’re delaying marriage, maybe even for years. If true, this could have some major effects on the American family.
More Debt, and More Graduates with Debt
There’s no denying that student loan debt has increased. Recent numbers indicate that about 70% of today’s graduates finish college with debt–a substantial increase over years past. The average amount owed by a graduate of a four-year college in 2012 was about $29,000. Still, the evidence is strong that a degree remains an excellent financial investment–suggesting that, for most, the debt is very likely worth it.
But are today’s new graduates so troubled by the amount they owe that they feel afraid or unable to make the financial commitment to a wedding and marriage? A recent paper in the journal Demographic Research looked at the marriage patterns of about 9000 new college graduates, tracking them for about four years. These young men and women graduated in the 1990s, so they did have less debt, on average, than students today.
Effects on Marriage Timing–But Only for Some
After taking a number of important factors into account (including type of degree, graduate school enrollment, and family characteristics), the researchers found that the amount of debt students carried did reduce the chances that they would wed—but only for women. For instance, in the months soon after graduation, a female graduate with only $4500 in debt was 19% more likely to get married than a female graduate with $14,000 in debt.
There was no such relationship for men, however. And the strength of this finding faded year by year over the four years in the study, perhaps as the women felt more secure in their job paths or as loan balances decreased.
Why would only women delay marriage due to high loan debt? While there’s no way to be certain, it could be that women don’t expect to earn as much as men and so are more concerned about being able to afford payments, or that being economically stable before marriage matters more to them.
Whatever the explanation, these findings do suggest that high loan balances could be affecting marriage decisions in at least some new graduates. Given that these figures are somewhat outdated, the trend could be more pronounced now. As tuition costs and student indebtedness continue to rise, they may be contributing to changes in how today’s young people make choices about family and future.
(Photo credit: Lego Wedding by AD Vedder. CC BY 2.0. Cropped.)
References:
The Institute for College Access and Success. (2013). Student debt and the class of 2012. Retrieved from http://projectonstudentdebt.org/files/pub/classof2012.pdf
Bozick, R., & Estacion, A. (2014). Do student loans delay marriage? Debt repayment and family formation in young adulthood. Retrieved from http://www.demographic-research.org/Volumes/Vol30/69/
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