Abstract

A growing number of families around the world are relying on student loans to pay for university under recent cost-sharing policies. However, it remains unclear to what extent university costs and the likelihood of needing student loans affect decisions in the early stages of education. This article examines the influence of parents’ attitudes towards taking out student loans and anticipated economic burdens for attending university on high school choice, using a longitudinal survey of students and their mothers conducted in Japan. This article shows that students whose mothers anticipate a large financial burden and are averse to taking out student loans are more likely to attend vocational high school than those whose mothers do not so anticipate and are willing to borrow. Furthermore, lower-class families show greater sensitivity to these perceived material barriers in upper secondary school choices than higher-class families when navigating a highly privatised educational system.

摘要

根据最近的费用分摊政策，世界各地越来越多的家庭依靠学生贷款来支付大学费用。然而，目前尚不清楚大学成本和需要学生贷款的可能性在多大程度上影响教育早期阶段的决定。本文通过对日本学生及其母亲的纵向调查，研究了父母对学生贷款的态度以及上大学的预期经济负担对高中选择的影响。本文表明，与母亲不那么预期并愿意借钱的学生相比，母亲预期有较大经济负担且不愿申请助学贷款的学生更有可能上职业高中。此外，