Student Debt Spans Generations: Characteristics of Parents Who Borrow to Pay for Their Children's College Education.

Objectives: 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.

Method: 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.

Discussion: Our findings suggest concerns about the student debt crisis should extend to aging parents.