TY  - CHAP
AB  - Abstract As students increasingly incur debt to finance their undergraduate education, there is heightened concern about the long-term implications of loans on borrowers, especially borrowers from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Drawing upon the concepts of cultural capital and habitus (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1977), this research explores how student debt and social class intersect and affect individuals’ trajectory into adulthood. Based on 50 interviews with young adults who incurred $30,000–180,000 in undergraduate debt and who were from varying social classes, the findings are presented in terms of a categorization schema (income level by level of cultural capital) and a conceptual model of borrowing. The results illustrate the inequitable payoff that college and debt can have for borrowers with varying levels of cultural resources, with borrowers from low-income, low cultural capital backgrounds more likely to struggle throughout and after college with their loans.
VL  - 22
SN  - 978-1-78635-234-7, 978-1-78635-233-0/0196-1152
DO  - 10.1108/S0196-115220160000022001
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/S0196-115220160000022001
AU  - Chin Lu Elissa
PY  - 2016
Y1  - 2016/01/01
TI  - The Intersection of Student Loans and Social Class: Exploring Borrowers’ Journeys into Debt and Repayment
T2  - Paradoxes of the Democratization of Higher Education
T3  - Research in Social Problems and Public Policy
PB  - Emerald Group Publishing Limited
SP  - 1
EP  - 67
Y2  - 2024/04/24
ER  -