ERIC Number: ED651067
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2024
Pages: 8
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Meeting the Changing Needs of Veterans: Insights from Student Veterans Who Are Single Parents. Research Brief. RB-A1363-2
Stacey Yi; Sierra Smucker; Teague Ruder; Coreen Farris
RAND Corporation
Many studies on higher education access have focused on challenges faced by the civilian population. Indeed, there are many obstacles that people face when seeking to enter certificate- and degree-granting programs, including affordability, inequitable admission standards, and family and work demands on their time. Veterans, however, have access to G.I. Bill benefits, which are aimed at supporting veterans interested in attaining education and training after service. In previous decades, many veterans could depend on a partner -- typically a wife -- to care for their children while they attended school after service. However, gendered opportunities and constraints are changing; in fact, women are the fastest-growing population in the veteran community. Because women are more likely than men are to raise children without the support of a partner, the number of veteran single parents will likely rise as veteran demographics change. The G.I. Bill has historically succeeded in helping many veterans train for new vocations, but can the G.I. Bill continue to support veterans as family structures change? To find out, RAND researchers partnered with the Student Veterans of America and conducted semi-structured interviews with ten veteran single parents who are enrolled in higher education and one nonveteran school administrator who is dedicated to supporting student veterans. The interview questions were designed to help the research team investigate barriers and facilitators to veteran single parents' pursuit of higher education; the research team also examined how such policies as the G.I. Bill supported the educational goals of veteran single parents while they parented young children. The findings from this study can help veteran and education policy decisionmakers develop or refine education and training programs in ways that attune with the unique circumstances of veteran single parents.
Descriptors: Student Needs, Veterans Education, One Parent Family, Federal Legislation, Females, Womens Education, Affordances, Barriers, Student Characteristics, Racial Differences, Ethnicity, Gender Differences, Income, Child Care, Student Attitudes
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Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: Adult Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: RAND Education and Labor
Identifiers - Laws, Policies, & Programs: G I Bill
Identifiers - Assessments and Surveys: Current Population Survey; American Community Survey; Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A