The age old question, which comes first? A simultaneous test of children's savings and children's college-bound identity

William Elliott, Eun Hee Choi, Mesmin Destin and Kevin H. Kim

Children and Youth Services Review, 2011, vol. 33, issue 7, 1101-1111

Abstract: This study has three goals: (1) to provide an extensive review of research on the assets/expectation relationship, (2) to provide a conceptual framework for how children's savings effects children's college-bound identity (children's college expectations are a proxy for children's college-bound identity), and (3) to conduct a simultaneous test of whether owning a savings account leads to college-bound identity or college-bound identity lead to owning a savings account using path analytic technique with Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Our review reveals asset researchers theorize about college-bound identity in two distinct but compatible ways: college-bound identity as a "linking mechanism", and college-bound identity as a mediator. However, there has been little theoretical development on the attitudinal effects of assets. In this study, we posit a conceptual framework for how children's savings affects children's college-bound identity. Findings from the simultaneous test of the assets/college-bound identity relationship suggest that savings has modest effect on college-bound identity and vice versa. A policy implication is that asset building policies that seek to build children's college-bound identity in addition to their savings may be more effective than policies that only seek to build children's savings.

Keywords: Assets; College; attendance; Savings; Child; Development; Accounts; (CDAs); College; expectations; PSID (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:33:y:2011:i:7:p:1101-1111

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