Expectations and Incentives: Parental Financial Support for College During the Transition to Young Adulthood

Abstract

This study provides new insight into enrollment disparities by examining how the financial support adolescents expect to receive from parents as they transition to young adulthood differs by parent and family characteristics and whether they attend college. I do this by estimating expectations of cash and in-kind co-residency support in the year after high school completion using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. The results indicate that children whose parents are highly educated, who have high solidarity with their parents, and whose parents hold norms of adolescent financial dependency have particularly large financial incentives to attend college — particularly a four-year college — due to the amount and type of financial support they can expect from parents. This study suggests that policymakers and practitioners who wish to reduce socioeconomic disparities in college access should look more closely at how financial aid policies interact with the actual support parents provide their children.