Raising Children, Rising Debt: Mortgage Debt Among American Families
American households owe more than $12 trillion in mortgages, which represents the main source of a family’s debt. Scholars connect mortgages to the desire of families, especially better-off households, to seek housing in neighborhoods with good schools for their children, which tend to be more expen...
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2024-11-01
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| author | Nina Bandelj Yader R. Lanuza Zaoying Ji |
| author_facet | Nina Bandelj Yader R. Lanuza Zaoying Ji |
| author_sort | Nina Bandelj |
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| description | American households owe more than $12 trillion in mortgages, which represents the main source of a family’s debt. Scholars connect mortgages to the desire of families, especially better-off households, to seek housing in neighborhoods with good schools for their children, which tend to be more expensive. Although this perspective assumes a children–mortgage link, we do not know whether having children actually increases mortgage, nor whether and how this relationship varies by household income. To examine these issues, we use eleven waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics data between 1997 and 2017 and individual fixed effects, as well as propensity score matching and a quasi-experimental design. Our analyses show that generally, (1) families with children are more likely to have mortgage debt and in greater amounts; (2) it is families in the 60th to 100th income percentile who have the most mortgage debt; and (3) critically, families in the roughly 10th to 60th income percentile have more mortgage debt due to having children. These findings defy assumptions that it is well-to-do families that take on more mortgage debt as part of intensive or concerted cultivation parenting practices. Rather, our findings suggest that families who take on mortgage debt related to their children tend to be those in more economically precarious positions for whom debt for the sake of kids may be a financial burden. As such, our findings provide suggestive evidence that financially intensive parenting may contribute to growing wealth inequality among American families with children. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-77f3efdea085484f8c032efbf6dcee4f |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2076-0760 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-11-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Social Sciences |
| spelling | doaj-art-77f3efdea085484f8c032efbf6dcee4f2024-11-26T18:22:18ZengMDPI AGSocial Sciences2076-07602024-11-01131160010.3390/socsci13110600Raising Children, Rising Debt: Mortgage Debt Among American FamiliesNina Bandelj0Yader R. Lanuza1Zaoying Ji2Department of Sociology, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USADepartment of Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USADepartment of Sociology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USAAmerican households owe more than $12 trillion in mortgages, which represents the main source of a family’s debt. Scholars connect mortgages to the desire of families, especially better-off households, to seek housing in neighborhoods with good schools for their children, which tend to be more expensive. Although this perspective assumes a children–mortgage link, we do not know whether having children actually increases mortgage, nor whether and how this relationship varies by household income. To examine these issues, we use eleven waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics data between 1997 and 2017 and individual fixed effects, as well as propensity score matching and a quasi-experimental design. Our analyses show that generally, (1) families with children are more likely to have mortgage debt and in greater amounts; (2) it is families in the 60th to 100th income percentile who have the most mortgage debt; and (3) critically, families in the roughly 10th to 60th income percentile have more mortgage debt due to having children. These findings defy assumptions that it is well-to-do families that take on more mortgage debt as part of intensive or concerted cultivation parenting practices. Rather, our findings suggest that families who take on mortgage debt related to their children tend to be those in more economically precarious positions for whom debt for the sake of kids may be a financial burden. As such, our findings provide suggestive evidence that financially intensive parenting may contribute to growing wealth inequality among American families with children.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/13/11/600mortgagedebtchildrenparentingeconomic inequality |
| spellingShingle | Nina Bandelj Yader R. Lanuza Zaoying Ji Raising Children, Rising Debt: Mortgage Debt Among American Families Social Sciences mortgage debt children parenting economic inequality |
| title | Raising Children, Rising Debt: Mortgage Debt Among American Families |
| title_full | Raising Children, Rising Debt: Mortgage Debt Among American Families |
| title_fullStr | Raising Children, Rising Debt: Mortgage Debt Among American Families |
| title_full_unstemmed | Raising Children, Rising Debt: Mortgage Debt Among American Families |
| title_short | Raising Children, Rising Debt: Mortgage Debt Among American Families |
| title_sort | raising children rising debt mortgage debt among american families |
| topic | mortgage debt children parenting economic inequality |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/13/11/600 |
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