“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
Income, education, & the
transition to adulthood
• Recent growth in college enrollment from lowincome 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)
3
RECIPROCITY &
full WSLS sample
•25% give financial help to
their parents
•19% provide financial
help to their siblings
4
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?
6
Data & methods
• Qualitative data from the Wisconsin
Scholars Longitudinal Study (WSLS)
• Longitudinal, randomized trial of needbased 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
10
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.
11
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
15
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
18
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
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“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