William Elliott

Suppressor Variables in Social Work Research: Ways to Identify in Multiple Regression Models

Suppressor variables may be more common in social work research than what is currently recognized. We review different types of suppressor variables and illustrate systematic ways to identify them in multiple regression using four statistics: R2, sum of squares, regression weight, and comparing zero-order correlations with respective semipartial correlations.

The Role of Savings and Wealth in Reducing "Wilt" Between Expectations and College Attendance

‘Wilt’ occurs when a young person in high school expects to attend college but does not do so shortly after graduating. In this study we find that youth with no savings account in their own name are more likely to experience wilt than any other group examined. In multivariate analysis, young people who expect to graduate from a four-year college and have an account are approximately six times more likely to attend college than those with no account. Teens who expect to graduate from a four-year college and have designated a portion of their savings for college are approximately three times more likely to attend college than those with no account. Additionally, when savings are taken into account, academic achievement is no longer a significant predictor of college attendance. Policy implications are discussed.

Staying on Course: The Effects of Savings and Assets on the College Progress of Young Adults.

Increasingly, college graduation is seen as a necessary step toward achieving the American Dream. However, large disparities exist in graduation rates. For many families, the current family income is not enough to finance college. Therefore, many young adults have to rely on education loans, which may be difficult to repay, leaving them strapped with debt after leaving college. This study examines the potential role of assets and savings for promoting college progress among young adults. Overall, findings suggest that policies, such as Child Development Accounts (CDAs), that help parents and youth accumulate savings—especially savings for college—may increase college attendance and graduation completion rates.

Predicting Savings From Adolescence to Young Adulthood: A Propensity Score Approach

This paper examines the progression of savings between adolescence and young adulthood. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we ask whether the likelihood of having a savings account in young adulthood and the amount of savings can be significantly predicted by two factors: having a savings account during adolescence and having parents who own assets. Descriptive statistics reveal that adolescents with savings accounts are more often White, employed, and live in households in which the head is married, has more education, and owns assets. Propensity score analyses confirm that young adults are more likely to have a savings account when they have a savings account as adolescents. Some evidence suggests that adolescents whose parents have savings on their behalf and have higher net worth are more likely to have higher amounts of savings as young adults. Findings suggest that parents play an important role in modeling saving habits for adolescents. Further, our findings suggest that having a savings account in adolescence leads to an increased likelihood of having a savings account in young adulthood; however, this finding requires confirmation in future research.

Direct Effects of Assets and Savings on the College Progress of Black Young Adults

Descriptive data indicate that 62% of White young adults between the ages of 17 and 23 years were on course (i.e., either in college or have graduated from college) in 2007, compared with only 37% of Black young adults. Given this, finding novel and promising ways to promote college progress among Black young adults, in particular, is a growing concern for policy makers. Controlling for a number of factors, the authors find that young adults who have school savings as adolescents are more likely to be on course than young adults who did not have school savings regardless of race. The authors conclude that policies that help parents and adolescents accumulate savings may be a simple and effective strategy for helping keep young adults “on course” in their college education, while taking on less debt.

Reducing the College Progress Gap Between Low- to Moderate-Income (LMI) and High-Income (HI) Young Adults: Assets as an Understudied Form of Economic Capital

The different types of capital—economic, cultural, social, and human—are believed to augment young people’s use of effort and ability, allowing them to accomplish more than they would be able to otherwise. From this perspective, if there are two young people with similar capacities for effort and ability but one of them has capital at their disposal, the young person with capital will be able to achieve a higher level of functioning (i.e., success) in school than the young person without capital. Accordingly, we hypothesize that having assets reduces the college progress gap between HI (household income of

Child Development Accounts and College Success: Accounts, Assets, Expectations, and Achievements

50,000 or above) young adults and LMI (household income below

Ideas for Refining Children's Savings Account Proposals

50,000) young adults.

The Relationship between Income and Net Worth in the United States: A Virtuous Cycle for High- but Not Low-Income Households

Child Development Accounts (CDAs) are savings or investment accounts opened as early as birth (Goldberg, 2005; Sherraden, 1991). The goal of CDAs is to promote saving and asset building for lifelong development. Thus, CDA assets may be used for postsecondary education for youth and homeownership and enterprise development in adulthood. In many cases, public and private entities deposit funds into these accounts to supplement savings for the child.

How Much Is Too Much: Educational Loans and College Graduation

“Creating a Financial Stake in College” is a four-part series of reports that focuses on the relationship between children’s savings and improving college success. This series examines: (1) why policymakers should care about savings, (2) the relationship between inequality and bank account ownership, (3) the connections between savings and college attendance, and (4) recommendations to refine children’s savings account proposals. This series of reports presents evidence from a set of empirical studies conducted by Elliott and colleagues on children’s savings research, with an emphasis on low-income children, relevant to large-scale policy proposals. One such proposal, The ASPIRE Act, would encourage savings by opening an account for every newborn child, seeding the account with an initial deposit and progressively matching contributions, and designating accumulated resources to support post-secondary education or other targeted uses such as homeownership or retirement. Collectively, these reports build on the compelling observation that children with savings in their name are given a stake in their future. As such, they are more inclined to take control over their educational experience and feel more empowered to attend college and persist through graduation.