CHAPTER 6

Quality of Life After College

In Chapter ?, we synthesized evidence pertaining to the career and economic benefits associated with college attendance. In this chapter, we review the accumulated evidence pertaining to the influence of postsecondary education on a range of nonmonetary benefits (e.g., health, happiness, community involvement, well-being of children, and the like) to the individual. Economists, who have conducted much of the research on this topic, tend to use the terms “nonmarket” or “consumption” in referring to these benefits (e.g., Cohn & Geske, 1992; Haveman & Wolfe, 1984).[1] We think a more general descriptor might be indicators of the quality of one’s life. In our 1991 synthesis, nearly all the research in this area dealt with the impact of different levels of formal education on quality of life indicators. Consequently, our previous review was limited to the net effects of college. The more recent literature of the 1990s also has as its primary focus the net impact of different levels of education. However, there is a small body of evidence on between- and within-college effects on quality of life indicators.

Net Effects of College

Conclusions from How College Affects Students

Problems in research design and the inability to control important confounding influences make causal attributions about the long-term impact of college on various quality of life indexes somewhat tenuous. It nevertheless remains true that college-educated individuals consistently rank higher than those with less education on a clear majority of the quality of life indicators considered. Compared to those with less education, the college educated tend to have better overall health and a lower mortality rate, have smaller families and be more successful in achieving desired family size through informed and effective use of contraceptive devices, and spend a greater portion of time in child care, particularly in activities of a developmentally enriching nature (such as teaching, reading, and talking). They also tend to be more efficient in making consumer choices, save a greater percentage of their income, make more effective long-term investment of discretionary resources, and spend a greater proportion of discretionary resources and leisure time on developmentally enriching activities (reading, participation in arts and cultural events, involvement in civic affairs, and so forth).

It is likely that at least part of the impact of college on these indexes of life quality is indirect, being mediated through the socioeconomic advantages that tend to accrue to the college educated. Having the economic resources to pay for desired goods and services is not without important consequences for the quality of one’s life. At the same time, the positive link between educational level and many quality of life indexes remains even after economic resources are held constant. This suggests the possibility at least that college may also have a direct impact on quality of life by enhancing such characteristics as the ability to acquire new information and process it effectively, the ability to evaluate new ideas and technologies, the capacity to plan rationally and with a long-term perspective, the willingness to accept reasonable risk, and the developmental and cultural level of one’s leisure interests and tastes. It should be pointed out, however, that the absence of controls for initial traits makes it difficult to separate the direct impact of college from the confounding influence of pre-existing differences between those who attend and those who do not attend college.

Even though college-educated individuals clearly rank higher on a broad array of quality of life indicators, they do not, on the average, express appreciably greater satisfaction with their lives than do those with less education. We would suggest that this does not signify the absence of impact but rather reflects the fact that the impact of college has dimensions that function both to increase and to diminish expressions of satisfaction with one’s life. On the one hand, the clear job status and economic returns to college are likely to have a positive impact on some dimensions of life satisfaction. On the other hand, one probable impact of college is that it tends to foster a more critical perspective in individuals. Consequently, as compared to those with less education, college-educated men and women may be more sophisticated, skeptical, analytical, and critical in their judgments of some facets of job satisfaction, marital satisfaction, and overall sense of well-being.

Evidence from the 1990s

The decade of the 1990s produced a substantial body of evidence with respect to the net effects of education on various quality of life indexes. Although it does not address all the elements of quality of life dealt with in our previous synthesis, the research from the 1990s that does exist yields evidence that is generally consistent with our 1991 conclusions. What is different about the literature from the 1990s is that on several quality of life indexes, the evidence permits a somewhat better understanding of the plausible causal mechanisms underlying the association with education. However, it is also the case that the majority of research treats education as a continuous variable (e.g., years of formal education completed). Consequently, it is frequently difficult to determine the magnitude of the effect uniquely attributable to different amounts of postsecondary education. Rather, one often needs to infer, or extrapolate, the influence of postsecondary education from the overall effect of education. We synthesize evidence pertaining to the net influence of education on quality of life indexes under the following headings: subjective well-being, health, welfare of children, and community/civic involvement.

Subjective Well-Being

Consistent with the conclusion from our previous synthesis, the evidence from the 1990s clearly indicates that the causal relationship between formal education and different measures of subjective well-being, overall happiness, or satisfaction with life is complex. Nearly all the studies we reviewed indicate that, net of other factors such as age, sex, earnings, or health status, the direct effect of formal education on various indexes of subjective well-being or overall happiness in industrialized or developed countries tends to be small and statistically nonsignificant or, in some cases, even negative (e.g., A. Clark & Oswald, 1994; Hartog & Oosterbeek, 1998; Ross & Mirowsky, 1989; Veenhoven, 1996). Part of this may be attributable to the positive impact of education in general, and postsecondary education in particular, on an individual propensity and capacity to make measured, comprehensive, and critical judgments. Increased education may also lead one to interpret life satisfaction or happiness in more complex and qualitatively different terms. As a result, and consistent with the conclusions of our previous synthesis, educational attainment should perhaps be expected to have only a weak and inconsistent net positive impact on measures of life satisfaction or global happiness.

At the same time, the evidence is also quite clear in suggesting that educational attainment has positive net impacts on dimensions of one’s life that, in turn, increase one’s sense of life satisfaction or overall happiness. For example, Bowen and Bok’s (1998) analyses of the College and Beyond data found that, net of other factors, educational attainment had a strong, positive influence on earnings 19 years after entering college. In turn, household income (a highly related correlate of earnings) had a strong, positive impact on the likelihood of being “very satisfied” with life. This effect persisted even in the presence of statistical controls for such factors as: race, sex, tested ability, high school achievement, socioeconomic status, college major, college grades, college selectivity, employment sector, marital status, and dependent children. Similarly, net of other factors, educational attainment appears to have statistically significant, positive direct effects on both sense of personal control over one’s life and perceived social support, each of which, in turn, has positive net effects on sense of well-being (Ross & Mirowsky, 1989, 1992; Ross & Van Willigen, 1997). There is also evidence indicating that education has a net, positive impact on perceived health status (Ross & Wu, 1995), which, in turn, has positive net impacts on overall sense of happiness (Hartog & Oosterbeek, 1998). Thus, while the direct impact of educational attainment on global happiness or life satisfaction is typically small and inconsistent, education appears to have important, positive indirect impacts by means of its enhancement of economic affluence, sense of control over one’s life, networks of social support, and perceived health status.

Health

Of all the quality of life indexes we consider in this chapter, none has been studied as much, in terms of its relationship to educational attainment, as health. The 1990s produced a substantial body of empirical work on this topic. It also produced several excellent literature reviews of the existing evidence which were of notable assistance in developing this part of our synthesis of the evidence (e.g., Grossman & Kaestner, 1997; Hartog & Oosterbeek, 1998; Leigh, 1998b; McMahon, 1998; Ross & Wu, 1995). Clearly, there is a strong, positive relationship between educational attainment and various measures of health such as mortality rates, self-evaluation of health status, or physiological indicators of health; and this relationship persists irrespective of whether the units of observation are individuals or groups (Grossman & Kaestner, 1997). It is equally clear, however, that this relationship is potentially confounded by factors that may be linked to both educational attainment and health status (e.g., economic and family circumstances, risk factors of one’s work, access to medical care or health knowledge, personality traits, and the like). However, the late 1980s and the 1990s produced a substantial number of studies, analyzing primarily nationally-representative data sets, which control for many of these confounding influences and clearly suggest the likelihood that educational attainment has a direct and/or indirect causal effect on good health (e.g., Behrman, Sickles, Taubman, & Yazbeck, 1991; Behrman & Wolfe, 1989; Berger & Leigh, 1989; Desai, 1987; Grembowski et al., 1993; Grossman & Kaestner, 1997; Hartog & Oosterbeek, 1998; Haveman, Wolfe, Kreider, & Stone, 1994; Kahn, 1998; Kenkel, 1991; Leigh, 1990, 1998b; Menchik, 1993; Ross & Mirowsky, 1995; Sander, 1995a, 1995b, 1998).

Causal Mechanisms

The exact mechanisms underlying this likely causal influence, however, may be numerous and complex (Leigh & Dhir, 1997). For example, taking a largely sociological or social-psychological perspective on the issue, Ross and Wu (1995) hypothesized that there were three major mechanisms through which education influences health. These were: 1) work and economic conditions (e.g.,, employment status, income and economic security, access to health insurance, fulfilling work; see for example Dewar, 1998; Ross & Mirowsky, 1995); 2) social-psychological resources (e.g., sense of control over one’s life and social support networks; see for example M. Becker, 1993); and 3) health lifestyle (e.g., smoking exercising, drinking, and health check-ups; see for example Kenkel, 1991). In analyses of two national probability samples of U.S. households, and with statistical controls for sex, race, age, and marital status, Ross and Wu found that years of formal education completed had statistically significant and direct positive effects on measures of both self-reported health status and physical functioning/mobility in daily activities. With an additional control for self-reported health status the prior year, educational attainment also had a statistically significant and positive direct effect on improvement in health status over a year period. When added to the regression equations, measures of each of the three hypothesized mechanisms (i.e., work and economic conditions, social-psychological resources, and health lifestyle) had significant, direct effects on physical functioning, health status, and improvement in health status. However, while reduced in magnitude by about half, the direct, positive effects of educational attainment on all three health outcomes remained statistically significant. Such findings suggest that part of the impact of education on health is indirect, mediated through its direct influence on work and economic conditions, social-psychological resources, and health lifestyle. Yet, taken together these three mechanisms fail to explain the total positive effect of education on health.

Economists provide a somewhat different, though not unrelated, perspective on the causal mechanisms underlying the link between education and health. For example, increased formal education is hypothesized as increasing both “allocative” and “productive” efficiency (e.g., Gilleskie & Harrison, 1998; Leigh, 1998b). Allocative efficiency addresses effects due to information. The better educated, and particularly those with exposure to postsecondary education, have more access to health knowledge and health information than the less well educated, and they are more likely to believe in it (Finnegan, Viswanath, Kahn, & Hannan, 1993; Leigh, 1998b). Productive efficiency implies that additional education permits the individual to derive better health status from the available information about different aspects of health, such as medical care, diet, smoking, alcohol consumption, exercise, avoidance of environmental and safety hazards, and the like (Gilleskie & Harrison, 1998; Leigh, 1990; Ng, 1989; Smith, 1997). That is, given equal access to the same information, the better educated are more likely to extract important knowledge and make decisions that produce good health than the less well educated. One might think of productive efficiency as the direct effect of education on health, while allocative efficiency reflects an indirect effect.

In addition to allocative and productive efficiency, economists also hypothesize a third causal mechanism via which education can increase health. They frequently refer to this as “time preference for the future” (e.g., G. Becker, Grossman, & Murphy, 1991; G. Becker & Mulligan, 1997), though it might be thought of essentially as a willingness to delay present gratification for some future good. The evidence is fairly strong that education enhances this future orientation or capacity to delay gratification (G. Becker et al., 1991). (Indeed, the act of enrolling in a postsecondary institution itself suggests this future orientation, in that the individual must often forego some portion of present earnings for the increased likelihood of a future advantage in career or economic attainment.) By enhancing future orientation, educational attainment leads to behaviors that have long-term positive effects on health, such as exercise, nonsmoking, moderate alcohol consumption, diet, and the like (e.g., Ford et al., 1991; Ippolito & Mathios, 1990; Sander, 1995a, 1995b).

There is modest evidence to suggest that the indirect effects of allocative efficiency and future orientation function as potential causal mechanisms in explaining the positive link between education attainment and good health (e.g., Gilleskie & Harrison, 1998; Kenkel, 1991; Leigh & Dhir, 1997; Sander, 1998). Where it is considered, however, the direct, positive effect of education, or productive efficiency, on measures of health status tends to remain statistically significant even when factors such as preventative health care, lifestyle choices (e.g., exercise, smoking), and time preference are taken into account (Gilleskie & Harrison, 1998; Leigh & Dhir, 1997).

Our conclusion from this research is that there are a variety of causal mechanisms that potentially account for the direct and indirect effects of educational attainment on health. We agree with the conclusion of Leigh and Dhir (1997) that the search for a single causal mechanism to explain the correlation between educational attainment and health may be a largely fruitless exercise.

Education and Risk Factors for Mortality and Disease

The evidence is reasonably clear that increased educational attainment significantly lowers: 1) the probability of mortality at any particular age (Guralnik, Land, Bluzer, Fillenbaum, & Branch, 1993; Kaplan & Keil, 1993); 2) the likelihood of specific health problems, such as disability or frailty (Berger & Leigh, 1989; Leigh, 1998a; Leigh & Dhir, 1997) and arthritis (Leigh & Fries, 1991); 3) the probability of mortality from cancer or cardiovascular disease (Bucher & Ragland, 1995); and 4) the probability of having risk factors for cardiovascular and other diseases (Winkleby, Fortmann, & Barrett, 1990; Winkleby, Jatulis, Frank, & Fortman, 1992). In some instances, it is possible to isolate the unique effects of postsecondary education on these outcomes. For example, Bucher and Ragland (1995) analyzed a sample of over 3,000 men in the Los Angeles and San Francisco area who were middle aged (39-59) in 1960/61, and who were followed for a 22-year period. The sample was divided into two comparison groups—those who attended or graduated from college and those who had a high school education or less. Compared to those with no exposure to postsecondary education, the college group had significantly lower risk factors for both coronary heart disease and cancer (i.e., blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and cigarettes smoked per day). Moreover, even when these risk factors or age were controlled statistically, the college group had a significantly lower relative risk of mortality from all causes, and from coronary heart disease, than did the noncollege group. Similarly, Winkleby, Fortman, and Barrett (1990) found that, even in the presence of controls for such factors as age, sex, income and occupation, years of formal education had significant negative impacts on four risk factors for disease—smoking, hypertension (high blood pressure), cholesterol level, and body mass index. On an overall risk score that combined these four factors, adjusted for age and sex, those with a bachelor’s degree or more had the lowest score, followed by those with one to three years of college. The highest overall risk scores accrued to those with a high school education or less. Findings consistent with those of Bucher and Ragland, and Winkleby et al. are also reported by Burke, Bild, Hilner, Folsom, Wagenknecht, and Sidney (1996) and Hann and Asghar (1996) for clinical obesity, by Irabarren, Sidney, Sternfeld, and Browner (2000) for coronary heart disease, and by Mead, Witkowski, Gault, and Hartmann (2001) for women’s health status.

Education and Health Habits

What has also become quite clear is that lifestyle choices or health-related behaviors (e.g., smoking, exercise, diet, alcohol consumption, and the like) play a major role in influencing both risk factors for disease and mortality rates. While the estimates differ, there is general agreement that lifestyle behaviors account for a substantial percentage of mortalities in the United States (e.g., McGinnis & Foege, 1993; National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), 1992; Powell, 1988; Rogers & Powell-Gringer, 1991; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1989). One of the major positive impacts of educational attainment on health is manifest in its influence on lifestyle or health-related behaviors. Net of confounding factors such as age, race, sex, marital status, income and/or employment status, educational attainment tends to have significant negative effects on cigarette smoking, alcohol abuse/dependency, and cholesterol level (Crum, Helzer, & Anthony, 1993; Darrow, Russell, Copper, Mudar, & Frone, 1992; Gilleskie & Harrison, 1998; Kenkel, 1991; Sander, 1998; Winkleby et al., 1990), and significant positive effects on aerobic exercise, a healthy diet, and consumption of dietary fiber (e.g., Ford et al., 1991; Gilleskie & Harrison, 1998; Ippolito & Mathios, 1990; Kahn, 1998; Kenkel, 1991).

Once again, some studies provide sufficient information to estimate the unique effects of postsecondary education on health-related behaviors. For example, both Sander (1995a; 1995b; 1998) and Zhu, Giovino, Mowery, and Eriksen (1996) present evidence based on national samples to suggest not only that exposure to postsecondary education reduces the probability of smoking cigarettes, but also that those with a bachelor’s degree, or four years of college, are the least likely of any educational group to smoke and the most likely to quit smoking. Net of other factors, Zhu et al. found that college graduates were about 2.8 times less likely to smoke than high school graduates and about 3 times more likely to quit smoking, if they had ever smoked, than high school graduates. Sander (1995a) reports that the net odds of quitting smoking are .49 and .59 for male and female college graduates, respectively, but only .40 and .45, respectively, for male and female high school graduates. Similarly, Kenkel’s (1991) evidence suggests that having a bachelor’s degree or more may be more important in reducing bad health habits (smoking) and promoting good health habits (aerobic exercise) than simply being highly knowledgeable about the impact of such behaviors on health.

The impact of postsecondary education on alcohol consumption is more complex, and this, in part, may be attributable to the fact that the relationship between alcohol consumption and health is not linear. A moderate amount of alcohol consumption (compared to abstinence) is linked to lower risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, and hypertension, whereas very heavy drinking or alcohol abuse is associated with higher risk (Ross & Wu, 1995). Probably the most useful study in terms of the effects of exposure to postsecondary education on alcohol abuse or dependency was conducted by Crum, Helzer, and Anthony (1993). Analyzing a subsample of data from individuals in 3,000 adult households, they introduced controls for such factors as age, sex, race, marital status, employment status, household composition, age of first intoxication, and history of previous psychiatric disorder. In the presence of these controls, individuals with an associate’s degree or above had the lowest risk estimate for alcohol abuse or dependency of any education group. Compared to this higher education group, those with 9-12 years of formal education had over 6 times the probability, and those with a high school degree about 1.8 times the probability of alcohol/abuse dependency. Interestingly, however, those with some college, but less than an associate’s degree, had a risk probability for alcohol abuse/dependency 3 times greater than individuals with an associate’s degree or more. Thus, while completion of at least two years of postsecondary education appears to generally reduce the probability of alcohol abuse, simply attending college for a short period of time may not.^{^[2]}

Welfare of Children

In our previous synthesis, we reviewed evidence indicating that the more educated tend to have smaller families and make proportionally greater investments in child care of a developmentally enriching nature than parents with less formal education. Although a substantial part of the evidence is based on simple correlations, unadjusted for confounding factors, the research from the 1990s reinforces and expands the conclusion that parental education, in general, functions to enhance the welfare of children. This impact may begin even before a child is born in the form of the quality of prenatal care received. In this regard, a study using the National Natality Survey by Rosenzweig and Schultz (1991) is enlightening. Controlling for such factors as predicted health status of the baby (i.e., birth weight), father’s income, medical services available in the area, race of mother and father, mother and father’s height and weight, and area labor market conditions, both mother’s and father’s education had significant positive effects on the mother’s age at birth and the number of prenatal medical visits received, and significant negative effects on delay in prenatal visits, a mother’s likelihood of smoking during pregnancy, and the number of births in the family. When factors such as mother’s age, delay in prenatal care, and mother’s smoking behavior during pregnancy were added to the previous controls, father’s and mother’s education still had significant, positive effects on the likelihood of the expectant mother receiving medical services such as ultrasound or X-ray.

In addition to prenatal care and welfare, there is also evidence suggesting significant differences in the lives of children related to the level of parental education. For example, Wolfner and Gelles (1993) analyzed data from a national probability sample of households that had at least one child under 18 years living at home to determine the factors that lead to severe or abusive violence toward children. Severe or abusive violence was operationally defined as striking a child with an object. Net of statistical controls for race of parents, gender of the child, number of children in the family, and parental drug use, mother’s education had no impact on use of severe or abusive violence against a child. However, net of the same factors, father’s education had a significant curvilinear relationship with the use of severe or abusive violence. Children in families where the father had at least some college or a college degree were at less risk of being subjected to severe or abusive violence than children in families where the father had some high school or a high school diploma. Interestingly, compared to children in homes where fathers had high school educations, children in homes where the father had no more than an elementary school education were also less at risk of being subjected to severe or abusive violence. Thus, while paternal exposure to postsecondary education may generally function to reduce abusive violence toward children, the net relationship between educational attainment and violence toward children is complex.

Additional evidence suggests that educational attainment is also correlated with other national indexes of children’s quality of life. For example, the risk of childhood death by age 2 is inversely related to the educational level of parents (Rodriguez-Garcia & Goldman, 1994); and while about 18% of teenage pregnancies occur in families where parents have a high school diploma, the corresponding figure for families where the parents have completed college is only about 6-7% (Maynard & McGrath, 1997). Similarly, increased levels of parental education are positively associated with a higher probability of reading to a young child (age 3-5) every day (Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, 2002), greater parental involvement in a child’s school (National Center for Education Statistics, 1999; Zill & Nord, 1994) and a greater probability of assisting a child with his or her homework (Why college? Private correlates of educational attainment, 1999, March). Finally, although only 10% of households where parents had a high school degree had access to online computer service in 1997, 38% of households where parents had a bachelor’s degree or above had such access (Gladieux & Swail, 1999). Unfortunately, much of this evidence is based on simple correlations or associations, unadjusted for potential confounding influences. Thus, it is unclear just how much of the link between educational attainment and indexes of child welfare might be confounded by income, occupation, or other uncontrolled characteristics that lead individuals to obtain different levels of formal education. Nevertheless, such associations between educational attainment and children’s quality of life or home environment are consistent with more internally valid evidence reviewed above.

Community/Civic Involvement

If one assumes that an individual’s life is enriched through meaningful community and civic involvement, then such involvement might itself be regarded as an additional index of the quality of one’s life. Although the evidence of the 1990s is not extensive, it is consistent with our previous synthesis in suggesting that increased educational attainment leads to higher levels of community and civic involvement. Much of this evidence comes from Knox, Lindsay, and Kolb’s (1993) analyses of the 1986 follow-up of the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972. In their analyses, statistical controls were introduced for race, sex, tested academic ability, family socioeconomic status, and previous level of involvement in either 1972 or 1974. In the presence of such controls, level of exposure to postsecondary education had statistically significant positive effects on several dimensions of community/civic involvement. Individuals with a bachelor’s degree (compared to those with a high school diploma) were 1.8 times as likely to be frequently involved in political activities, 2.4 times as likely to be an active participant in community welfare groups, 1.5 times as likely to be frequently involved in political discussions, 1.8 times as likely to be highly committed to community leadership, and 2.5 times as likely to vote in a national, state, or local election. Those with less than a bachelor’s degree, but at least some exposure to college, were also between 1.7 and 1.6 times as likely to vote as their counterparts with a high school diploma. [The findings on voting behavior are consistent with those of other investigations (e.g., Institute for Higher Education Policy, 1997; Kennamer, 1990).] The only involvement dimension on which a bachelor’s degree had a significant, net negative influence was organized volunteer work. Compared to those with a high school degree, individuals with a bachelor’s degree were only about half as likely to be actively involved in organized volunteer work.

Between-College Effects

In our 1991 synthesis, we essentially reported no between-college effects on quality of life indexes. We did, however, uncover a very small body of research published in the 1990s that attempts to estimate such between-college effects. We synthesize this research within three basic topics: subjective well-being, community/civic involvement, and health.

Subjective Well-Being

In their comprehensive analyses of the College & Beyond sample, Bowen and Bok (1998) also address the net impact of attending a selective undergraduate institution on both job satisfaction and life satisfaction. In predicting the likelihood of being “very satisfied” with one’s job in 1995 (about 19 years after entering college), they introduced statistical controls for race, sex, tested academic ability, high school academic achievement, socioeconomic status, college major, college grades, educational attainment, job sector (e.g., for-profit, self-employed, not-for-profit, etc.), family income, and marital/parental status. In the presence of these controls, attending a selective college had a significant negative effect on the likelihood of being very satisfied with one’s job. This is a somewhat unexpected finding, in that in Bowen and Bok’s analyses, institutional selectivity enhanced earnings which, in turn, have a typically positive influence on job satisfaction. One possible explanation is that selective institutions tend to foster a more critical perspective in students. However, in the absence of a control for this trait when the sample entered college, an equally plausible explanation is that academically selective institutions simply attract students with a more developed critical perspective to begin with.

Similar findings are reported by Bowen and Bok (1998) in predicting the likelihood of being “very satisfied” with one’s life in 1995. In the presence of essentially the same statistical controls employed in the prediction of job satisfaction, institutional selectivity tended to have a modest negative relationship with life satisfaction in the sample combining individuals from all racial categories. However, the negative effect appeared to be particularly strong for African-Americans. Compared to their African-American counterparts graduating from the relatively lowest group of institutions in terms of selectivity, African-Americans graduating from the most selective group of institutions were only slightly more than half (.55) as likely to report being very satisfied with their life. Once again, however, it is difficult to determine from the analytical design of Bowen and Bok’s study if the negative influence of college selectivity on life satisfaction is a socialization effect of the institution attended or merely the result of differential student recruitment by schools varying in academic selectivity.

Community/Civic Involvement

Two separate studies, Bowen and Bok (1998) analyzing the College & Beyond data and Knox, Lindsay, and Kolb (1993) analyzing the 1986 follow-up of the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972, have estimated between-college effects on measures of community or civic involvement. In Knox, Lindsay, and Kolb’s analyses, statistical controls were introduced for race, sex, tested academic ability, family socioeconomic status, educational attainment, undergraduate grades and major, and previous level of involvement in either 1972 or 1974. In the presence of such controls, institutional characteristics such as selectivity, enrollment, private/public control, or residential emphasis had only trivial and statistically nonsignificant effects on a wide range of community or civic involvement dimensions. These included: the likelihood of voting in a national, state, or local election; the likelihood of being frequently involved in political activities; the likelihood of being an active participant in community groups, organized volunteer work, and youth organizations; and the importance of being a community leader.

Somewhat different results are reported by Bowen and Bok (1998) in predicting 1995 leadership positions in different dimensions of civic involvement for the College & Beyond sample entering college in 1976. In their analyses, they found that institutional selectivity tended to have a statistically significant, negative influence on the probability of taking a leadership role in youth or educational organizations (e.g., Little League, scouting, PTA, school board), but a significant, positive effect on taking a leadership role in cultural or alumni/ae activities (e.g., museum board, cultural or historical societies, fundraising or student recruitment for the college one attended). These significant effects persisted even in the presence of controls for such factors as race, sex, academic ability, socioeconomic status, college major and grades, educational attainment, job sector, and marital/parental status. Net of the same controls, college selectivity had only a small and statistically nonsignificant direct effect on leadership in social/community activities (e.g., social service or social welfare volunteer work, community centers, civil rights groups). However, attending a selective college appeared to have a discernible, positive indirect effect on leadership in social/community activities, mediated through intervening influences such as college major, educational attainment, and work and family variables.

One possible reason for the different results reported by Knox, Lindsay, and Kolb (1993) and Bowen and Bok (1998) is that the two studies employed somewhat different operational definitions of community or civic involvement. Knox, Lindsay, and Kolb tended to focus on active participation, while Bowen and Bok stressed leadership roles. Perhaps even more important, however, was the fact that Knox, Lindsay, and Kolb were able to introduce a statistical control for prior level of involvement, while Bowen and Bok were not. Consequently, it is difficult to determine how much of the impact attributable to college selectivity in Bowen and Bok’s study might be more appropriately attributed to differential recruitment of students with varying interests and propensities for leadership among institutions that differ in academic selectivity. Taking the findings from both studies into account, we conclude that the body of evidence with respect to the net impact of college selectivity on community/civic involvement is unconvincing.

Health

We uncovered only one study that directly estimates between-college effects on health. In analyses of data from a 1995 national telephone survey of adults aged 18-95, Ross and Mirowsky (1999) sought to determine if physical functioning and perceived health increase significantly with the selectivity of the college one attends. With statistical controls for years of education, age, sex, race, marital status, parental education, work and economic conditions, and social-psychological resources, the selectivity of the college attended had a very small, positive effect on both physical functioning and perceived health. Most of this effect was attributable to health-related behaviors (e.g., exercise, weight, drinking, smoking). It is not clear from Ross and Mirowsky’s analyses, however, if attendance at a selective college actually enhances health-related behavior. Selective institutions might simply recruit students with stronger social class-related propensities for healthy lifestyles to begin with. Furthermore, any positive effect of college selectivity on either physical functioning or perceived health was much smaller than the effect of years of formal education.

Although it does not speak directly to health after college, we uncovered an additional study that addresses between-college effects on binge drinking behavior during college (Dowdall, Crawford, & Wechsler, 1998). Since alcohol abuse in the senior year of college is a strong predictor of alcohol abuse up to three years later (Gotham et al., 1997), it seems reasonable that what influences drinking behavior during college may have implications for alcohol consumption in later life. Dowdall, Crawford, and Wechsler examined the self-reported binge drinking behavior of nearly 10,000 women at 140 colleges and universities. Binge drinking was defined as having four or more drinks at any one time. Such binge drinking among women was markedly less likely at women’s institutions than at coeducational institutions. For example, 7.5% of women at single-sex institutions reported being a binge drinker three or more times in the preceding two weeks. The corresponding percentage at coeducational institutions was 17.7%. In other words, a woman was about 2.4 times (17.7/7.5) as likely to be a binge drinker (at least by the study criterion) if she attended a coeducational college than if she attended a single-sex college.

One possible explanation for Dowdall, Crawford, and Wechsler’s (1998) findings is that the unique environment of women’s institutions creates a cultural norm that counters the social acceptability of binge drinking. For example, 55.6% of women at women’s colleges agreed or strongly agreed with the statement “students here admire nondrinkers,” compared to 45.3% of their counterparts at coeducational institutions. Similarly, 63% of women at women’s colleges compared to 40.6% of women at coeducational institutions strongly disagreed that “you can’t make it socially at this school without drinking.” As with much of the research on the net impact of women’s colleges, however, it is difficult to separate the differential socialization effect from the differential recruitment effect. The association between attending a women’s institution and lower rates of binge drinking may simply reflect the fact that women’s institutions are more likely to attract nonbinge drinkers to begin with. Indeed, as Dowdall, Crawford, and Wechsler candidly point out, 29% of women attending coeducational institutions engaged in binge drinking during the last year in secondary school, compared to only 21% of women attending women’s colleges.

Within-College Effects

Our 1991 synthesis reported essentially no within-college effects on quality of life indexes. In our present synthesis, however, we did uncover a modest body of research that estimates within-college effects on quality of life after college. We synthesize this evidence in terms of two basic topics: health and community/civic involvement.

Health

In the previous section of this chapter on the net-effects of college, we reviewed a substantial body of evidence indicating that educational attainment is strongly linked with good health, as well as with lifestyle choices and behaviors that promote good health. There is additional evidence to suggest that health knowledge and good health habits in later life can be even further enhanced by purposeful instruction during college.

Pearman, Valois, Sargent, Saunders, Drane, and Macera (1997) estimated the impact of a college health and physical education course on selected health knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of alumni. The one-semester course intervention carried academic credit and met in several 50-minute sessions per week. The content of the course included a balance of lectures and physical activity. Lectures covered the importance of exercise programs, nutrition, chronic diseases, and other wellness and lifestyle issues such as stress management and prevention of substance abuse. The physical activity sessions consisted of participation in aerobic exercise along with weight training and/or calisthenics. In addition, all students completed a comprehensive laboratory fitness assessment before and after the course. The course was required of all students at a private, liberal arts college in the southeastern United States, and alumni of this institution were the experimental group. The control group consisted of alumni from another private liberal arts college in the same geographic region which had no similar course. The two institutions had similar admissions requirements and freshman class profiles (e.g., SAT scores, socioeconomic status, high school grades). At each institution, samples of alumni from five graduating classes, covering a nine-year period (1985-1993), were surveyed about their health knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. Compared to their counterparts who did not take the course, alumni exposed to the required course were significantly more likely to know their blood pressure, blood cholesterol, and recommended dietary fat intake; significantly more likely to exercise; and significantly less likely to smoke. The experimental group also had lower intakes of dietary fat, cholesterol, and sodium than did those not exposed to the course. Clearly, there are internal validity issues with the design of the Pearman et al. study. Yet the evidence does suggest that purposeful health instruction during college can have extended health benefits beyond graduation, at least for young alumni. Such a conclusion is consistent with earlier evidence reported by Slava, Laurie, and Corbin (1984).

Other inquiry concerning within-college effects on dimensions of health has focused on whether the well-established link between fraternity/sorority (Greek) membership and alcohol abuse (Wechsler, 1996; Wechsler et al., 1998; Wechsler, Kuh, & Davenport, 1996) extends beyond graduation. A comprehensive investigation of students from 140 colleges by Wechsler, Davenport, Dowdall, Grossman, and Zanakos (1997) has suggested that living in a fraternity or sorority is a particularly strong predictor of binge drinking among students, irrespective of whether or not they are involved in intercollegiate athletics. Compared to other students, men and women living in fraternities and sororities were about 4 times as likely to engage in binge drinking during college. (Binge drinking was operationally defined as 5 or more alcoholic drinks in a row for men, and 4 or more for women.) Moreover, this effect persisted even in the presence of statistical controls for such factors as binge drinking behavior in high school, age, race, sex, parental alcohol use, college grades, time spent studying and socializing, number of friends, and both marijuana and tobacco use.

Whether Greek affiliation continues to predict the likelihood of binge drinking or alcohol abuse beyond college, however, is less certain. Perhaps the most useful evidence we uncovered on this topic is a focused, single institution study by Sher, Bartholow, and Nanda (n.d.), which followed a sample of students for seven years. During each of the four years of college and three years after college (year seven), young adults completed measures of alcohol use, along with personality measures, alcohol expectancies, and environmental influences. Throughout the college years, Greeks consistently drank more heavily than non-Greeks, and statistically controlling for initial alcohol use did not eliminate this impact. This finding is generally consistent with that of Wechsler, Davenport, Dowdall, Grossman, and Zanakos (1997). However, when initial or baseline alcohol use was taken into account, Greek affiliation had no significant effect on post-college drinking levels of either men or women. Moreover, the decrease in alcohol use between the college years and year seven was greater among Greeks than among non-Greeks. Thus, while the social norms of fraternities and sororities may lead to increased alcohol use among members during college, such influence may diminish rapidly once an individual is removed from such a context and is confronted with more traditional adult roles such as employment or marriage (Sher et al., n.d.).

Community/Civic Involvement

Gurin’s (1999) comprehensive study of diversity experiences during college, reviewed in earlier chapters of this book, also estimated the impact of those experiences on dimensions of community involvement. Recall that her study analyzed the 1985-89 Cooperative Institutional Research Program data, and included a further follow-up in 1994—nine years after the sample entered college. Statistical controls were introduced for such factors as SAT scores, high school grades, the ethnic diversity of the high school and home neighborhood, institutional selectivity, institutional control, and institutional structural diversity. In the presence of these controls, young white adults’ 1994 self-reported involvement in community service activities was significantly and positively influenced by a range of diversity experiences during college. These experiences included having college friends of a different race, taking an ethnic studies course, attending a racial/cultural awareness workshop, and socializing with someone of another racial/ethnic group during college.^{^[3]} The corresponding effects for African-American and Latino young adults were much less extensive, although attending a racial/cultural awareness workshop did increase the probability of involvement in community service activities in 1994 for African-Americans and discussion of racial/ethnic issues had a positive influence on community involvement for Latinos. Unfortunately, it does not appear that Gurin was able to control for precollege community involvement, or a suitable proxy for the likelihood of becoming involved. Thus, in this instance, it is difficult to determine the extent to which the association between involvement in diversity experiences during college and involvement in the community after college is genuinely causal. Gurin’s results may simply reflect the possibility that those students who enter college with a high propensity for involvement are more likely to do both.

Summary

Net Effects of College

Consistent with the conclusion of our previous synthesis, the evidence from the 1990s indicates that the causal relationship between educational attainment and subjective well-being or satisfaction with life is complex. The direct effect of education tends to be small and statistically nonsignificant or, in some cases, even negative. This may be explained by education’s impact on one’s ability to make measured, comprehensive, and critical judgments. Increased education may also lead one to interpret subjective well-being or happiness in more complex and qualitatively different terms. At the same time, it is clear that educational attainment has positive net indirect impacts on life happiness or satisfaction by means of its enhancement of economic affluence, sense of control over one’s life, networks of social support, and perceived health status.

The late 1980s and the 1990s produced a substantial body of evidence clearly suggesting that educational attainment has a direct and/or indirect causal effect on good health. The exact mechanisms underlying this likely causal influence, however, may be numerous and complex. They include work and economic conditions, health lifestyle, access to better health information, producing better health decisions from available information, and time preference for the future. The search for a single causal mechanism to explain the link between educational attainment and health may be a largely fruitless exercise.

The evidence is reasonably clear that increased educational attainment lowers: 1) the probability of mortality at any particular age; 2) the likelihood of specific health problems, such as disability or frailty; 3) the probability of mortality from cancer or cardiovascular disease; and 4) the probability of having risk factors for cardiovascular and other diseases. Those studies that make it possible to isolate the unique impacts of different levels of formal education indicate that, compared to those with no exposure to postsecondary education, those who attend or graduate from college have significantly lower risk profiles (i.e., blood pressure, cholesterol levels, cigarettes smoked per day) for both coronary heart disease and cancer. Even with this risk profile and age controlled statistically, those who attend or graduate from college also have a significantly lower risk of actual mortality from all causes and from coronary heart disease.

One of the major positive impacts of educational attainment on health is realized through its influence on lifestyle or health-related behaviors. Net of important confounding influences, educational attainment in general tends to have significant negative effects on cigarette smoking, alcohol abuse/dependency, and cholesterol level, and significant positive effects on aerobic exercise, a healthy diet, and dietary fiber intake. Compared to those with a high school education, individuals with a bachelor's degree are substantially less likely to smoke and substantially more likely to quit smoking if they had ever smoked. Moreover, having a bachelor's degree or higher may be more important in reducing bad health habits (e.g., smoking) and promoting good health habits (e.g., aerobic exercise) than simply being knowledgeable concerning the impact of such behaviors on health. The impact of postsecondary education on alcohol consumption is complex, perhaps, in part, because the relationship between alcohol consumption and health is not linear. While completion of at least two years of postsecondary education appears to generally reduce the probability of alcohol abuse/dependency, compared to having lower levels of formal education, simply attending college for a short period of time may not.

Although part of the evidence is based on unadjusted correlations, the research from the 1990s reinforces and expands the general conclusion from our previous synthesis that parental education in general functions to enhance the welfare of children. Net of confounding influences, including income, parents' formal education increases the likelihood of a newborn child receiving good prenatal care. There are also positive associations between increased parental formal education and the probability of parental involvement in a child's school, parental help with a child's homework, and a child's access to household computer resources. Conversely, parental formal education is inversely related to the risk of childhood death by age two and the probability of teenage pregnancy. Net of other factors, children in families where the father had attended college had a lower probability of being subjected to severe or abusive violence than children in families where the father had some high school or a high school diploma.

Increased levels of educational attainment leads to generally higher levels of community and civic involvement. Net of other factors, including prior levels of involvement, individuals with a bachelor's degree (compared to those with a high school diploma) are significantly more likely to be frequently involved in political activities, to be an active participant in community welfare groups, to be highly committed to community leadership, and to vote in a national, state, or local election. Those with some exposure to college, but less than a bachelor's degree, are also significantly more likely to vote than their counterparts with a high school diploma.

Between-College Effects

There is at least some evidence to suggest that the probability of being very satisfied with one's job and one's life are negatively influenced by attending a selective undergraduate college or university. One interpretation of this finding is that selective institutions tend to foster a more critical perspective in students. However, the lack of a precollege control for such a perspective makes it plausible that academically selective institutions simply attract students with a more developed critical perspective to begin with. Evidence suggesting that institutional selectivity influences community/civic involvement is mixed, possibly because different studies employ different operational definitions of the dependent variable. Nevertheless, the study that reports little or no influence of college selectivity on community/civic involvement introduced a statistical control for prior involvement, while the study that reports a significant impact of selectivity did not. We conclude that the evidence on this issue is unconvincing.

Evidence suggests that binge drinking behavior among women is significantly less likely at single-sex than at coeducational institutions. However, women who attend single-sex colleges were less likely than their counterparts at coeducational institutions to binge drink prior to entering college. Thus, it is not clear if this finding is the result of a socialization or a recruitment effect. There is also the suggestion that college selectivity may have a small, positive influence on perceived health and physical functioning, largely as the result of enhancing a healthy lifestyle. Here too, however, the possibility exists that this may be a recruitment effect.

Within-College Effects

There is a modicum of quasi-experimental evidence suggesting that health knowledge and good health habits after college can be enhanced by purposeful instruction during college. Alumni exposed to a one-semester health and physical education course during college that combined classroom and physical activity sessions had significantly higher levels of health knowledge, and were significantly more likely to practice good health habits (e.g., diet, exercise, nonsmoking) than alumni not exposed to the course. Clear evidence exists to indicate that being a member of a fraternity or sorority during college has a strong influence on binge drinking by both men and women during college; and this effect persists even in the presence of controls for important confounding influences, including binge drinking behavior in high school. However, it does not appear to be the case that the effect of Greek affiliation on drinking behavior during college extends to the years immediately following college. When prior drinking behavior is taken into account, Greek affiliation has little impact on post-college drinking levels for either men or women.

Single-study evidence indicates that involvement in racial/ethnic and other diversity experiences during college significantly increases the probability of involvement in community service activities in the years following college. The effect is particularly pronounced for young white adults. However, the design of the study makes it difficult to determine if the link between involvement in diversity experiences during college and community involvement after college is causal. The findings might reflect the fact that students who enter college with a high propensity for involvement are more likely to do both.

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