A step toward measuring children’s college-bound identity in children’s savings accounts programs: The case of promise scholars

Research indicates that children’s college expectations are an important predictor of children’s school outcomes and Children’s Savings Accounts (CSAs) are a predictor of children’s educational expectations. Typically measured with a single question, children’s college expectations have been used as s proxy for college-bound identity. Building on Identity-Based Motivation theory, we take a step toward creating a scale for measuring college-bound identity. This scale consists of 22items with three first-order identity factors: salience, group congruence, and interpretation of difficulty as normal. Findings indicate that a second-order identity latent named college-bound identity may be reflected in the data. We then test the association between Promise Early Award Scholarship (Promise Scholars), a CSA and early award scholarship program, and college-bound identity. Promise Scholars participants’ college-bound identity is predicted to be 0.02 higher than that of non-Promise Scholars participants. The authors offer potential next steps in the attempt to better measure children’s college-bound identity.