Student loan default occurs across the range of students’ socioeconomic
contexts. The family structure, the parents’ education, the parents’ marital
status, and the family’s eligibility for federal assistance such as Aid to Families
with Dependent Children are all proxies for the social and economic capital
students can “cash in” to attend college and then later to repay loans. We
discuss next the effects of family structure, parental education, and family
income on student loan default as reported in the studies we reviewed.