“You’re supposed to help family” How financial reciprocity affects the use of college financial aid

Julie Minikel-Lacocque

Sara Goldrick-Rab

Wisconsin Scholars Longitudinal Study

 July 8, 2011

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Income, education, & the transition to adulthood

• Recent growth in college enrollment from low-income families

Goldrick-Rab and Roksa, 2008; Haskins, Holzer and Lerman, 2009

• Change in transition to adulthood for these students

Goldrick-Rab and Han, 2011; Settersten, Furstenberg and Rumbaut, 2005

• Potential change in family’s finances

• Student remains a part of family’s financial web

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Making ends meet: family obligation

& financial reciprocity

• Monetary and non-monetary forms of support, sharing welfare checks (Edin & Lein, 1997)

• Use of Earned Income Tax Credit (Mendenhall, et al., 2010)

• Swapping & Reciprocity: “What goes around comes around,” (Stack, 1974)

• Young adults’ sense of “family obligation” & feeling “torn” (Fuligini & colleagues)

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RECIPROCITY & full WSLS sample

•25% give financial help to their parents

•19% provide financial help to their siblings

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familism

• A social pattern in which the family assumes a position of ascendance over the individual

•3 Dimensions of Familism• Attitudinal• Behavioral• Structural

-(Valenzuela & Dornbusch, 1994; Steidel & Contreras, 2003)

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Research questions

(1)What are the defining characteristics of financial reciprocity among college students from low-income families and their parents?

(2) How does the process of financial reciprocity shape the use of financial aid for these students?

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Data & methods

•Qualitative data from the Wisconsin Scholars Longitudinal Study (WSLS)

•Longitudinal, randomized trial of need-based financial aid

•Tracks an entering cohort of fall 2008 undergraduates attending Wisconsin’s public 2-year and 4-year colleges

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Reciprocity & the qualitative sample

•Subset of 50 interview participants•3-4 in-depth interviews per

student over 4 semesters•Over 95% retention rate•12 interviewees explicit about

helping families

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The students speak

1.Why Students Reciprocate

2.How Students Reciprocate

3.How Students Perceive the Consequences of Reciprocity

4.Where Students Get the Money to Help

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Why students reciprocate

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Why students reciprocate: IAN

[My father] just went over it with me, like, ‘You’re supposed to always look out for your family, no matter how much money you’ve got. If you’ve got a dollar or something, you know, if there’s four of them and they need something you give them a quarter a piece.’

That’s how we’re supposed to be raised…that’s how he raised us…and ever since then that’s how I’ve been trying to do it. You know, whenever I come across a…it doesn’t have to be much— as long as I come across a certain amount of money that can benefit me and my family, I’m going to try to do that as much as possible.

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Why students reciprocate: Sophie

Because that’s the way I was raised, I guess.

And but also because I guess I wasn’t really born with a silver spoon, like I saw where money came from and immediately where it went.

So because I understood where money came from and what a dollar was worth, I understood the implications that it has. … Both my parents are so giving, so I wanted to give back, I don’t know.

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How students reciprocate

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How students reciprocate: SOPHIE

[Normally] the high schooler goes and steals like 20 bucks out of her mom's purse. I used to put 20 dollars into my mom's purse.

I'd call my mom, "Do you need anything?" She’d say, “Oh, can you get toothpaste or bread?” But she would do the same for me…. But it got to the point by like junior year [in high school] I was trying to be self-sufficient a little bit.

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perceptions of reciprocity’s consequences

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Positive & stressful

Ian:

• “I’m in the position to help my family out now, you know— it’s like something that’s unexplainable.”

• “At times I probably feel like, ‘Damn, I don’t want to pay for this.”

• “I’m having problems … providing for my mother”

• “I always relate it back to my history, the things that they did for me and everything— and that’s what makes me want to do more for them, you know. That’s what pushes me through college and everything so I can help them out— a lot.”

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The pressure to reciprocate

Nima:

• Graphic design vs. nursing

• Family: “disappointed,” “art isn’t going to feed you”

• She wants “a good job in art—something I’m good at” AND “enough money to support my family.”

• Guilt, shame

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Where students get the money to help

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Money as proxy

Interviewer: Did he know you were intending to get pregnant?

Cocoa: Yeah it was both of our decisions.

Interviewer: Okay. But do you know why he [changed his mind]?

Cocoa: He said he loved me. He was like, ‘You’re in school and I know you’ll be able to take care of your baby. I guess ‘cuz I was getting financial aid money.

Interviewer: Tell me more about that.

Cocoa: Financial aid money. ‘Cuz he saw my financial aid check before, like the stub. He was like, ‘Yeah you’ll be able to take care of your daughter.’

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Limitations & Next steps

•Variation in reciprocity as interview topics

•Reciprocity in students of color

•Coding for the pressure to reciprocate on those students who do not

•Familism

“You’re supposed to help family” How financial reciprocity affects the use of college financial aid

Julie Minikel-Lacocque

Sara Goldrick-Rab

Wisconsin Scholars Longitudinal Study

 July 8, 2011