Can’t afford a baby? Debt and young Americans

•We asses the relationship between personal debt and early fertility.•Student loans delay fertility for women at very high levels.•Home mortgages and consumer debt are associated with fertility.•Different debts have divergent effects on young adult transitions. This article explores the role of pers...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Research in social stratification and mobility 2015-12, Vol.42, p.114-122
Main Authors: Nau, Michael, Dwyer, Rachel E., Hodson, Randy
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Birth of first child
Credit card
Debt
Home mortgage
Life course
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Summary:•We asses the relationship between personal debt and early fertility.•Student loans delay fertility for women at very high levels.•Home mortgages and consumer debt are associated with fertility.•Different debts have divergent effects on young adult transitions. This article explores the role of personal debt in the transition to parenthood. We analyze data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth-1997 cohort and find that for the generation coming of age in the 2000s, student loans delay fertility for women, particularly at very high levels of debt. Home mortgages and credit card debt, in contrast, appear to be precursors to parenthood. These results indicate that different forms of debt have different implications for early adulthood transitions: whereas consumer loans or home mortgages immediately increase access to consumption goods, there is often a significant delay between the accrual and realization of benefits for student loans. The double-edged nature of debt as both barrier and facilitator to life transitions highlights the importance of looking at debt both as a monetary issue and also as a carrier of social meanings.
ISSN:0276-5624
1878-5654
DOI:10.1016/j.rssm.2015.05.003