Objective: The purpose of our study was to identify the factors associated with federal loan default among a nationally-representative sample of community college students. The guiding research question was: For community college students who borrow federal loans, to what extent do demographic, academic, and enrollment characteristics relate to default? Methods: Using data from the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:04/09), our analysis focused on loan repayment outcomes six years after enrollment for students who began their postsecondary careers at a community college (i.e., a public, two-year institution) and had not transferred to a four-year institution. The analytic methods included descriptive statistics and multinomial logistic regression. Results: Compared to their peers who did not use federal loans, borrowers were more likely to be female, unmarried, lower-income, a Pell Grant recipient, and enrolled exclusively full-time. Regression results indicated that compared to borrowers still in repayment, defaulters were more likely to be male, first-generation college, lower-income, enrolled in workforce certificate and applied associate degree programs, lateral transfers, and non-completers. Notably, two-thirds of the defaulters had $5,000 or less in outstanding debt. Conclusions: Many of the student groups that have traditionally experienced the lowest rates of success at the community college are also the populations more likely to default on their loans. Relatively low levels of debt can still place severe financial hardship on community college borrowers. We propose several modifications to federal loan policy and institutional practices that could help reduce the number of community college borrowers who default.

目的：我们的研究目的是在社区代表学生的全国代表样本中确定与联邦贷款违约相关的因素。指导性研究问题是：对于借用联邦贷款的社区大学生，人口统计，学术和入学特征在多大程度上与违约有关？方法：使用来自初中大学生纵向研究（BPS：04/09）的数据，我们的分析集中于入学六年后就读于社区大学的大专学历的学生（即，公立，两年制）的贷款还款结果。机构），并且尚未转移到四年制机构。分析方法包括描述统计和多项逻辑回归。结果：与不使用联邦贷款的同龄人相比，借款人更可能是女性，未婚，低收入，佩尔·格兰特（Pell Grant）接受者，并且全日制就读。回归结果表明，与仍在还款的借款人相比，违约者更有可能是男性，第一代大学，低收入者，已加入劳动力证书和应用副学士学位课程，横向转移和未完成者。值得注意的是，三分之二的违约者的未偿债务为5,000美元或更少。结论：传统上，在社区大学中经历过最低成功率的许多学生团体中，也有更多的人违约贷款。相对较低的债务水平仍会给社区大学的借款人带来严重的财务困难。我们建议对联邦贷款政策和机构实践进行一些修改，以帮助减少违约的社区大学借款人的数量。