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May 8, 2008

New Study on College-Going Rates Gives Mom Something Else to Worry About

Here’s a novel line for a Mother’s Day card: “Thanks, Mom, for loving me so much I never earned a college degree.”

Implausible as it might seem, a new study suggests that there might be some truth to such a sentiment. Based on the survey responses of more than 13,800 young Texans polled during their senior year of high school and then again a year later, the study concludes that seniors who reported having good relationships with their mothers and fathers were actually less likely than others to enroll in a four-year college.

Yep, it’s true: Parents just can’t win.

One reason such findings are counterintuitive is that a large body of other research shows that children who have good relationships with their parents do better at school. The new study — by Ruth N. López Turley, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and Matthew Desmond, a doctoral student in the department — reached the same conclusion, finding that students who reported getting along well with the folks generally reported having better grades and higher class rankings than their peers did.

How, then, does a strong parent-child relationship hurt college-going prospects? It makes a high-school senior substantially more likely to express a strong desire to live at home during college. And those seniors who said it was important to them to live at home after high school were more than 40 percent less likely to enroll in a four-year college than their peers were.

The study found that many other traits — including socioeconomic disadvantage, being foreign-born, or not having degree aspirations — increased the likelihood that a young person would not want to leave the nest right after high school. Above and beyond the effects of such factors, Hispanic students were more than twice as likely as white students to report that it was important for them to stay home, suggesting that culture also plays an important role.

But, after using regression analysis to separate out the other possible factors, the researchers found that the unwillingness to leave home that comes from having good relationships with the parents has a negative-enough influence on college-going to cancel out the positive influence derived from the higher academic performance associated with such family relations.

In a paper summarizing their findings and submitted to the American Sociological Review, Ms. Turley and Mr. Desmond say: “Through our research, a paradox has come to light: Strong family ties, considered vital to a child’s success in school, can serve as an impediment to a child’s educational attainment. Parents who strive to develop an encouraging and communicative relationship with their children might produce a high-school honors student but not a four-year college graduate.” —Peter Schmidt

Comments

1. It seems like a stretch.

   — Doubter    May 8, 03:59 PM    #

2. So, is this the first time that having a dysfuntional family is an asset? I have SO been waiting for this day!

   — RR    May 8, 04:08 PM    #

3. Doesn’t this just mean that the HS grade benefit arising from a good relationship with one’s parents doesn’t in itself cause a greater love for learning that would lead to college enrollment (which, after all, would not be particularly counter-intuitive)?

   In other words, HS grades are an indicator of interest in academic matters, not a driver of them?

   — WG    May 8, 04:19 PM    #

4. Some parents have aspirations for their children that the children don’t necessarily share. A baccalaureate degree might be one of them. Children with career interests that don’t require a baccalaureate degree, may find support in a family that encourages them to speak their minds and pursue their interests. To paraphase John Gardener, former head of Common Cause, the world needs good plumbers and good philosophers or neither their pipes nor their theories will hold water.

   — Michael T. Murphy    May 8, 04:20 PM    #

5. I hesitate to generalize this study to a nationwide population. Texans (bless their hearts) are still a nation to themselves, and their behavior is not always that of the good folks outside deepinahearta country.

   — Al    May 8, 04:20 PM    #

6. This is a very interesting subject. So if a student has strong family ties then it is less likely that they will be able to earn a degree? No, I think it is more like if a student has parents that do everything for them (homework included), then I can see those students less likely to earn a degree. Now that makes more sense. Think about it- why should the student leave home when the parents will do everything for them anyway?

   — FuturePhD    May 8, 04:23 PM    #

7. Failure to enroll in a four-year degree granting institution within a year of high school graduation does not automatically mean failure to attain a four-year undergraduate degree within six years of high school graduation. Students sometimes attend community college while living at home for both financial and family reasons. For many students, two-year undergraduate institutions are an essential part of the pathway to four-year degree attainment.

   — AC    May 8, 04:33 PM    #

8. Well, not surprising from a developmental perspective. To be emotionally ready to do something new, one needs to be emotionally prepared to let go, at least a little, of something familiar. Perhaps the focus should not be on having good or bad relationships with parents, but to recognize that it is healthy for the relationship to start to change at about 16 and shift into a different mode by 18. It is a fundamentally different thing to have a child-parent relationship, than to have an adult child-parent relationship.

   — HIED doc    May 8, 04:34 PM    #

9. Sociologists are so likely to take a single, non-representative sample and generalize from it to the world. These studies may show a correlation between 13,800 Texan and claims of intent but there is no evidence of a causal relationship between what is said and what happens. This look like publication and dissertation wishfulness.

   Where are the formal methods that would give this at least limited reason to ponder?

   — FEL    May 8, 04:35 PM    #

10. I’ve not yet read the entire study, but AC’s comment is right on – suggesting a major flaw in the study’s methodology if the authors don’t consider community college-going as “college going.”

    — CM    May 8, 04:41 PM    #

11. “enroll in a four-year college” Sounds like college snobism. What is wrong with a student making a more gradual transition to independent living?

    — bo    May 8, 05:08 PM    #

12. AC and CM hit the nail on the head with regard to the community college angle and its place along the path to a baccalaureate degree, which didn’t seem to be considered in this study. On another note, I hope this study does not contribute to the tendency to pathologize what are normal and indeed constructive behaviors in other cultures, including living at home beyond high school.

    — RB    May 8, 05:12 PM    #

13. My husband and I have a wonderful and warm relationship with all three of my sons; we farm and ranch which is a very family-oriented Texan lifestyle, and there has never been a discussion of IF they went to college, only WHEN. The 2 older sons are successfully pursuing a medical degree in 2 different medical schools, and the youngest plans to fly and design jets. Maybe the students begin with a 2-year college—what is the harm in that? I think that is a smart consumer approach. Maybe the research should look at how much the parents are babying the students rather than at their “close relationship” if this research means anything at all.

    — DL    May 8, 05:18 PM    #

14. Did the researchers factor in where the students live? Families in big cities, where there are plenty of higher ed institutions, two- and four-year ones, academic and otherwise (Think Fashion Institute, Curtis Institute, Culinary Arts Academy), can live at home and pursue further education without the
    added burden of room & board.

    Families in rural areas, or places where academic choice beyond high school is limited may opt out for a few years until the HS graduates decide how they want to focus their career goals. Or perhaps save money to finance their schooling. No harm in that.

    — Helene    May 8, 06:18 PM    #

15. All the comments regarding CC going are nice, but take a look at the research. For those who INTEND on obtaining a baccalaureate degree, but start at community college, the liklihood of successfully obtaining a 4-year degree is not high.

    — JKT    May 8, 06:38 PM    #

16. I wonder if the large first generation college, hispanic population in texas influenced the outcome of this study?

    — ehw    May 9, 08:44 AM    #

17. Perhaps another issue here is how the relationship with parents was defined. What characteristics determined a good relationship with parents. Would for example a relationship that fostered independence be evaluated differently than one that fostered dependence.

    — Joseph Bellina    May 9, 09:06 AM    #

18. Joseph (#17), that’s a good question. Anecdotal evidence (i.e. the helicopter parents who inappropriately insert themselves into the higher learning process on a routine basis) are a prime example of relationships that may foster excessive dependence and negatively impact the kids’ chances of completing their baccalaureate degrees. Wonder if this study included questions designed to determine levels and types of of parental involvement and dependency?

    — Mina    May 9, 09:17 AM    #

19. I’m a neuroscientist and my interpretation of data emerging from brain imaging studies is that most young-adult brains aren’t optimized for “leave home-succeed in college” right out of HS anyway. Maybe supportive families realize this and let the maturation process occur in a biologically-appropriate pace? I don’t buy the implication that direct progression to college from HS is preferable to delaying it.

    — Deekva    May 9, 09:46 AM    #

20. Really? Considering other generations (and some areas now) allow peole to marry in their teens and start families…You say they aren’t ready to leave home at 18? Oh my!

    — Mary    May 9, 09:56 AM    #

21. Josheph & Mina (17 & 18) beat me to the punch. I’d be curious as to how the researchers defined “good relationship.” And, was this relationship evaluted by the students or was it deduced from other factors in the study. “Warm and fuzzy” is a wonderful thing, not to be minimized; but to what extent have the parents also encouraged independence?

    — Tony    May 9, 10:06 AM    #

22. I want to reinforce someone else’s point that this study only looked at residents of Texas, which has a very strong culture of staying in-state or at home for college. I don’t think their cultural pressures are similar enough to the nation-at-large to use them as a research subject.

    — Amanda    May 9, 10:34 AM    #

23. My mother loved me enough to tell me I was going to a college too far away for me to live at home or to come home every weekend. I did not have a car. It was one of the best things she did for me, because I matured and started accepting adult responsibilities.

    — Scott    May 9, 11:34 AM    #

24. My family made me so nuts that I not only went to college halfway across the country, but took an extra year to graduate and then remained in that state almost 20 years.

    — GRF    May 9, 11:41 AM    #

25. It’s interesting that most posters are considering going away from home to a four-year college as “successful” and staying closer to home as less so. In many communities, including Latino and American Indian families, staying closer to home is considered a marker of success. And there are plenty of Latinos and American Indians outside of Texas, so it doesn’t seem likely the survey results are just some “Texas” phenomenon.

    — Toni    May 9, 01:22 PM    #

26. This study emits the odor of a doctoral student searching an otherwise dissappointing group of data for SOMETHING significant to report…and then reluctantly settling for the above findings.

    — Susan Harhd    May 9, 01:51 PM    #

27. There is nothing new about this phenomena, only now they focus on this for particular ethnic groups, or the ‘helicopter’ parents of millennial kids. My friends who stayed in the small midwestern hometown [this was during the mid 80s] were usually very home/family oriented; I would say the closer to parents the more likely they were to stay. Often those community college attendees didn’t separate from the hometown/family paradigm, they chose an occupation that centered them there. They were also students with good high school GPA’s, but they just used those at the local 2-year college.

    — carol    May 12, 12:00 PM    #

28. As an experienced instructor of 18 years, teaching at community colleges in New Mexico, this phenomenon is not limited to Texas. Most of my students have no desire to leave home. They are not raised with that expectation either. Most of my students have been Hispanics and most of the parents I have known in these communities only give lip service to their children going off to college. They do not understand the preparation required for a student to go out and meet the larger world. The parents themselves want their hijos and hijas to stay close by (within 100 miles). My two children are just college age now and the many parents of their classmates show great surprise that I would allow my teenage girls (who are part hispanic) to live more than 3 hours away in another state. This is a phenomenon that colleges will have to deal with as hispanics are the fastest growing population in the country. If we want an educated workforce we must face this issue.

    — Robyn    May 12, 12:18 PM    #

29. That last paragraph is inflammatory and disturbing.

    Allow me to paraphrase: Don’t get too attached to your kids, because the gov’t and the economy has their own plans for them. You should be afraid of strengthening the family unit, because then you might actually feel too good about yourself to be made into a mindless consumer, trying to throw money at that empty feeling inside.

    I think I’m going to be sick now.

    — Rational Picara    May 12, 05:32 PM    #

30. I believe the conclusion. I taught at a midwestern small state university that had a strict attendance policy of three absences and you
    received an F.
    I still had students tell me they couldn’t come to class
    because “their mom missed them” or “their family was doing something” and they couldn’t believe that was not a valid reason to miss class.
    I agree with GRF. I went off to study for a doctorate 1,000 miles away from my Diva mother and have never returned.

    — A    May 12, 05:40 PM    #

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