Parental Influence
For the parental influence construct, students have expressed their opinion concerning the
role of parents, such that parents advise them to find any job to repay the loan. Parents
advise their children (loan borrowers) to make regular payments in order to reduce the debt.
Parents are also found to be the people reminding students about the importance of making
loan repayments in order to avoid problems in the future. On the other hand, the indirect
influence is that parents' experience with any loan makes them more concerned of the
effects of debt on their personal lives, which therefore influences students. In the case of
NHEFC, for example, parents are the guarantors of the loan; therefore, in order to avoid the
burden on parents in the future, students are reminded regularly to pay back the loan after
graduation. In non-Western cultures, parents are considered to be very important and have a
very strong relationship, with young children usually obeying their parents without
question.