Child Engagement Questionnaire (CEQ)
Category: Families and Communities
Families’ college savings behaviors are important determinants of students’ postsecondary enrollment and degree attainment. While prior work has examined how economic and sociological aspects of families shape savings behaviors, no study has examined how geographic or community-level factors relate to families’ college savings. Drawing from prior work on the role of place in shaping economic and educational outcomes, our study leverages administrative records on the universe of Pennsylvania 529 account holders and beneficiaries in Pennsylvania (N=197,889) paired with a variety of community-level indicators to descriptively interrogate which geographic features or community influences relate to families’ selection of a college savings plan, their first and mean contributions, and the frequency of savings. Our results suggest there are key community factors that help shape college savings, including socioeconomic status, income inequality, and nonprofit community resources. While these features have been linked to other economic and educational outcomes, our work is the first to document their association with families’ college savings and not only provides policymakers and future researchers with important information on targeting college-going and college-saving resources but also on the salience of place in shaping yet another educational outcome.
Keywords
529 plans; college savings; communities; descriptive analysis; income inequality; Pennsylvania; socioeconomic status; sociology of education
Education level
Topics
Document Object Identifier (DOI)
10.26300/qqbj-bk73
