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Parents and Families: FAQ
This guide provides recommended resources for and about student parents and their families.
2018 article from The Atlantic: "For nearly one in five female college students, child-care costs and the responsibilities of parenting make graduating far from easy."
Student-parents are an increasingly large share of the college population, but little is known about how they balance the demands of college with those of parenthood and household responsibilities. In this article, we use data from the American Time Use Survey to explore the time-allocation decisions of student-parents compared with student-nonparents.
![[Infographic] American Counsil on Education. Center for Policy Research and Strategy. Higher Ed Spotlight: Single Parent Students. © ACE 2014. STATISTICS ON UNDERGRADUATE SINGLE PARENTS IN POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION: In the 2011–2012 academic year, U.S. colleges and universities enrolled 3.5 million students who are also single parents, a group that represents 15.2 percent
of the undergraduate population. This growing demographic group of posttraditional students must balance academic, family, and work responsibilities at the same time. DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS: Race/ethnicity - 32.5% Black, 42.3% White, 17.8% Hispanic, 1.4% American Indian, 2.9% Asian, 0.5%Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, 2.8% More thqan one race. Gender - 22.4% men, 77.6% women. Age at start of postsecondary education (average), 24. First-generation and low-income status - 59.7% first generation AND low income, 19.3% first generation but NOT low income, 15.6% low income but NOT first generation. WORK RESPONSIBILITIES: 37% full-time job, 34.9% no job, 28.2% part-time job. FAMILY RESPONSIBILITIES: number of children (average), 1.63. FINANCIAL STATUS: adjusted gross income (median), $14,071. POSTSECONDARY CHOICE: Public - 14.9% 4-year, 48.1% 2-year, Private for profit - 18.5% 4-year, 5.9% 2-year, 4.8% <2-year, Private nonprofit - 6.9% 4-year. ENROLLMENT DECISIONS: 50.8% attended postsecondary institution part-time, 54.4% delayed enrollment in postsecondary education. Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2011-2012 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study. Analysis by Yang Hu, Graduate Research Associate.](https://libapps.s3.amazonaws.com/customers/6051/images/Higher-Ed-Spotlight-Single-Parent-Students.jpg)