2013 Conference

Financial Services

Financial Services

This study was designed to investigate the impact of student loan debt on young adults’ relationship decisions, particularly marital status. Although student loans are important tools that enable the pursuit of higher education, the burden of student loans is making the lives of young Americans harder than ever before. In a recent study by the Pew Research Center (Sanburn, 2010), almost 40% of younger households, those under age 35, have some student loan debt. A nationally representative survey found that 14% of respondents (ranging from the class of 2006 through 2011) reported that they are delaying marriage or other committed relationships due to their student loan obligations.  However, little work has been done to explore this assertion empirically. Data for this study come from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1997 data (NLSY97). The sample consists of people who turned 30 in 2010. The relationship between marital status (categorized as single, cohabitating, married, and once-married) and financial situation (individual income, family income, student loan debt and overall debt) of young adults was investigated. The initial ANOVA analysis indicates that the financial situations of cohabitating couples are more similar to single people rather than married couples with lower individual income and lower overall debt than married couples. To investigate the possibility that financial factors and life satisfaction affect the decision to marry, multinomial logistic regression analysis will be conducted for further findings.