An estimated one in five college students is a parent, juggling coursework with caring for a dependent and, often, holding down a paid job. The competing priorities of working and caregiving students can put them at heightened risk for stopping out or quitting higher education, requiring additional investment from colleges and universities to help them succeed.

A recent report from Trellis Strategies, using data from its Fall Financial Wellness Survey, identifies key trends among student caregivers, the role that time poverty can play in their academic pursuits and recommendations for additional supports.

Who are caregiving students? Eighteen percent of respondents indicated they were a parent or guardian of a child, or approximately 9,500 of the survey’s 53,000-plus respondents. Seven percent of respondents said they were a caregiver to another individual, not a dependent, and 6 percent said they provided care for a child and another individual, identifying them as a double caregiver.

Women were more likely to say they were caregivers (73 percent) than non-caregivers (55 percent), and more than twice as many Black students indicated they had caregiver (27 percent) or double-caregiver (34 percent) responsibilities, compared to non-caregivers (12 percent). Two-year students were more likely to report being a caregiver (25 percent) than their four-year peers (13 percent).

A majority of non-caregivers in Trellis’s study were under 24 years old (84 percent), but caregivers were more evenly represented across age brackets from 18 to 45, representing a variety of identities and priorities. For example, younger caregivers were more likely to say they spent less than 20 hours per week providing care for their dependents, compared to their peers aged 25 to 40, but young parents were also more likely to say they missed at least one day of class due to a lack of childcare (32 percent), versus their peers in their early 30s (27 percent).

Competing priorities: A high percentage of caregiving students are also employed; 71 percent worked while enrolled and 85 percent agreed it was important for them to support their family financially while in college. In addition to supporting themselves, caregiving students said they offered financial support to their spouse (34 percent), parents or guardians (24 percent), or other family members (22 percent).

Affordability is a top barrier to student persistence nationally, but the cost of higher education can be an even greater burden for students with dependents. A 2014 report by EdTrust found that a student parent working a minimum-wage job would have to work 52 hours per week to afford both childcare and net tuition at a public four-year institution in the U.S.

Caregiving students were also more likely to consider themselves a “worker that goes to school” (63 percent) than “a student who works” (37 percent)—the direct inverse of non-caregiving students, a majority of whom said they were a student who works (72 percent). Sixty-eight percent of student parents who were employed reported working more than 40 hours per week.

“The time poverty caused by work and caregiving commitments can have a substantial impact on the student experience,” according to the report.

The financial and personal pressures of being a caregiver can also impact a student’s academic performance; 24 percent of parenting students said they missed at least one day of class in the past semester due to a lack of childcare.

Parenting students are more likely to report financial insecurity; 70 percent indicated they would have difficulty securing $500 in cash for an emergency expense. More than four in five caregivers said they’d run out of money at least once in the past year, and nearly 40 percent ran out of money eight or more times in the past year.

Seventy-two percent of caregivers reported experiencing some level of basic needs insecurity, including food insecurity, housing insecurity or homelessness. Research from New America and the Princeton Eviction Lab published earlier this year found that student parents who faced eviction were 23 percent less likely to complete a bachelor’s degree and more likely to experience a lower quality of life.

Supporting success: Based on their findings, Trellis researchers believe institutional investment in caregivers could improve retention, academic success and degree completion for parenting students. They suggest collecting and disaggregating data on student enrollment to identify caregivers, including dependent-care expenses in students’ cost of attendance and providing priority registration for caregivers.

Childcare remains a critical need, but institutions can help bridge the gap through on-campus facilities, sharing information about community childcare resources and referral services, and partnering with community organizations for support resources.

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