College Student Caregivers More Likely to Stop Classes

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Even before the pandemic, boosting college completion was a major goal for both policymakers and institutions. Familial obligations have long been recognized as potentially coming into conflict with students' focused dedication to coursework and thereby an obstacle to degree completion. Data from the Lumina-Gallup State of the Student Experience survey shed new light on the number of students confronting caregiving responsibilities and the consequences for completion.

Nearly-one third (30%) of all currently enrolled college students (including those pursuing a bachelor's degree, associate degree, certificate, certification or other industry certification) report that they are parents of minor children or caregivers to adults. This includes 42% of students pursuing an associate degree program and 21% of those pursuing a bachelor's degree.

	All students	Pursuing associate degree	Pursuing bachelor's degree
	%	%	%
Parent	21	32	16
Caregiver to adult	16	21	14
Parent or caregiver to adult	30	42	24
LUMINA-GALLUP STUDENT STUDY, SEPT. 22-OCT. 5, 2020

These results are from the Lumina-Gallup Student Study, conducted Sept. 22-Oct. 5, 2020, with 3,941 students pursuing a bachelor's and 2,064 students pursuing an associate degree and 400 students pursuing a certification, industry certification or a certificate. Surveys were conducted using an opt-in panel, and the sample was weighted to represent the national population of currently enrolled college students.

Caregiving Duties Differ by Employment Obligations, Race

Enrolled students who provide domestic care to children or adults are also much more likely to be employed (either full or part time) than those who do not have those responsibilities. Among caregivers of children or adults, 65% of associate degree-seeking students and 64% of bachelor's degree-seeking students are also working compared with 57% of those without caregiving duties in associate programs and 42% in bachelor's programs.

These differences are only partly due to age, as older students are more likely to have caregiving responsibilities and to be working than younger students, but caretakers of the same age are more likely to be working than non-caretakers.

	Pursuing associate degree	Pursuing bachelor's degree
	%	%
Parent	65	64
Not a parent	58	43
Caregiver to adult	68	68
Not a caregiver to adult	59	43
Parent or caregiver to adult	65	64
Neither parent nor caregiver to adult	57	42
LUMINA-GALLUP STUDENT STUDY, SEPT. 22-OCT. 5, 2020

Likewise, Black and Hispanic college students are more likely than White and Asian students to be parents or caregivers to adults.

	All programs	Pursuing associate degree	Pursuing bachelor's degree
	%	%	%
Hispanic students	39	53	31
Black students	35	44	28
White students	26	38	21
Asian students	20	31	17
LUMINA-GALLUP STUDENT STUDY, SEPT. 22-OCT. 5, 2020

Caregiving Students More Likely to Consider Pulling Out of Classes

College students who provide care to children or adults are far more likely than those who are not parents or caregivers to say they have considered stopping taking courses in the past six months, 44% to 31%. The significant relationship between caregiving or parental responsibilities and consideration of pulling out of courses persists even after controlling for race, program level, age, gender, marital status, household income, and the amount of money taken out in loans.

Of the two caregiver groups, students who care for an adult are more likely than those with children to say they have considered stopping their classes. Also, associate program students are more likely than those in bachelor's programs to have thought about it.

	All students	Pursuing associate degree	Pursuing bachelor's degree
	%	%	%
Parent	42	46	40
Not parent	32	34	32
Caregiver to adult	53	58	49
Not caregiver to adult	31	32	30
Parent or caregiver to adult	44	46	42
Not parent or caregiver to adult	31	32	30
LUMINA-GALLUP STUDENT STUDY, SEPT. 22-OCT. 5, 2020

Caregivers Cite Caregiving Among Top Reasons for Withdrawal

Those college students who have considered stopping classes were asked to indicate which reasons, from a list of 14 possibilities, best explain why they thought of doing so. Caregiving for an adult or a child is one of the key reasons, but others are about equally at play.

Thirty percent of all students who care for an adult cited that care as the reason for their possible withdrawal, 26% attributed it to the cost of schooling and 26% to obtaining a new job.

Parents were more likely to cite childcare -- with 37% citing these responsibilities and another 27% indicating the cost of attendance, 25% the coronavirus, 24% finding a new job, and 20% providing care to an adult.

At the same time, college students who do not have caregiving responsibilities were most likely to say COVID-19 (57%), emotional stress (46%) and the cost of attendance (33%) were the key reasons for considering stopping coursework.

	Parent	Caregiver to adult	Not parent or caregiver to adult
	%	%	%
Childcare responsibilities	37	24	3
Cost of attendance	27	26	33
COVID-19/Coronavirus	25	23	57
Got a new job	24	26	8
Care for family member or friend	20	30	8
Health-related reasons	18	19	12
Emotional stress	17	15	46
Lost job	16	18	12
Coursework was too difficult	13	12	18
Did not believe degree/credential would help achieve personal goals	9	14	11
Completing degree/credential taking longer than expected	8	10	8
Did not believe degree/credential would help achieve career goals	8	9	7
Courses not relevant to future career	7	9	7
Education was low quality	6	10	15
LUMINA-GALLUP STUDENT STUDY, SEPT. 22-OCT. 5, 2020

Bottom Line

Three in 10 college students are either the parent of a minor child, the caregiver of an adult or both. These students are significantly more likely than those without such responsibilities to say they are considering withdrawing from classes, and they say their caregiving duties are a top reason for it.

Those pursuing associate degrees are particularly likely to say they have caregiving obligations, and they are also more likely to say they are thinking about dropping out. While community colleges and other institutions that offer associate degrees may already be aware of the caregiving demands on a large portion of their students and may offer campus programs that provide such care services to students, these data suggest that more needs to be done to address the needs of these students and retain them.