Staying or Leaving: Educational Pathways After Unplanned Pregnancy Among College Women of Color

1. Introduction

Higher education is widely associated with economic mobility, professional opportunity, and long-term security. Yet students’ ability to persist through college is shaped by more than academic preparation or individual motivation. Retention is influenced by financial resources, employment, caregiving responsibilities, health-related needs, social support, and institutional flexibility (Conway et al., 2021; Dayne et al., 2023; Yates et al., 2024). These conditions are especially important for women students of color, whose educational experiences may be shaped by intersecting systems of race, gender, class, and family responsibility (Crenshaw, 1989; Welbeck et al., 2023).

Equity-focused higher education research has emphasized that students do not experience college under equal social or institutional conditions. Women students of color may navigate academic expectations alongside racialized and gendered assumptions, financial pressures, family obligations, and uneven access to institutional support (American Council on Education, 2024; Welbeck et al., 2023). These conditions matter for retention because they shape not only whether students remain enrolled but also how they move through college, the forms of support available to them, and whether institutions recognize responsibilities that extend beyond the classroom.

Student retention research commonly emphasizes enrollment continuity, academic performance, advising, financial aid, belonging, and institutional engagement. These dimensions remain important, but they may not fully capture the experiences of students whose education is interrupted or reshaped by pregnancy, childbirth, parenting, or related caregiving responsibilities. Among parenting students, persistence may involve reduced enrollment intensity, competing demands on time, childcare responsibilities, financial strain, and continued efforts toward degree completion under altered circumstances (Conway et al., 2021; Dayne et al., 2023; Goldrick-Rab et al., 2020; Yates et al., 2024). A simple retained-versus-dropped-out framework may therefore overlook forms of educational persistence that include interruption, adaptation, and later continuation.

Pregnant and parenting students remain an important but often underrecognized population in higher education. Student parents constitute a substantial share of the college population, and parenting while enrolled is disproportionately experienced by women and students from racially and ethnically minoritized backgrounds (Goldrick-Rab et al., 2020; Noll et al., 2017; Yates et al., 2024). Many student parents pursue higher education as a pathway toward greater economic security for themselves and their families, yet they face substantial barriers to persistence and completion, including childcare needs, time constraints, financial insecurity, employment demands, and limited institutional support (Conway et al., 2021; Dayne et al., 2023; Goldrick-Rab et al., 2020; Williams et al., 2022; Yates et al., 2024). These barriers suggest that delayed completion or temporary departure should not automatically be interpreted as a lack of educational aspiration or academic commitment.

Childcare and time constraints are particularly important for understanding persistence among parenting students. Time poverty can reduce the time available for studying and other educational activities and may shape patterns of enrollment and academic participation (Conway et al., 2021). Research has also documented challenges involving childcare availability and affordability, work schedules, transportation, financial demands, and the coordination of caregiving with academic expectations (Dayne et al., 2023; Goldrick-Rab et al., 2020; Williams et al., 2022). For women students of color, these responsibilities may intersect with broader racialized and gendered inequities in higher education and with differences in access to institutional resources and opportunities (American Council on Education, 2024; Noll et al., 2017; Welbeck et al., 2023).

Unplanned pregnancy adds another layer of complexity to academic persistence. Although pregnancy during college is frequently considered within health, prevention, and reproductive decision-making contexts, its educational consequences also warrant attention. Recent qualitative research involving college women of color in the U.S. South indicates that unplanned pregnancy may affect emotional well-being, relationships, access to support, reproductive decision-making, and experiences within university environments (Fazli Khalaf et al., 2026). These experiences are relevant to higher education because pregnancy-related physical, emotional, relational, and financial demands may intersect with attendance, coursework, employment, campus engagement, and future educational plans.

The educational consequences of unplanned pregnancy may also differ according to pregnancy outcome. For students who continue pregnancies, childbirth, postpartum recovery, childcare, and parenting responsibilities may alter academic schedules and educational plans (Dayne et al., 2023; Fazli Khalaf et al., 2026; Yates et al., 2024). For students whose pregnancies end in abortion, educational disruption may be less visible but may still involve pregnancy symptoms, emotional strain, costs, travel, time away from class or employment, and reliance on services outside campus systems (Fazli Khalaf et al., 2026). The educational significance lies not in evaluating pregnancy decisions but in understanding how pregnancy-related experiences intersect with interruption, continuation, return, and access to institutional support.

Legal and institutional contexts are also relevant to these experiences. Title IX prohibits sex discrimination, including discrimination based on pregnancy and parental status, in educational programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance (U.S. Department of Education, 2026). However, the existence of legal protection does not necessarily mean that students know their rights, receive timely accommodations, or experience campus systems as accessible. Research on student parents suggests that supports may be fragmented, unevenly communicated, or dependent on individual faculty and staff rather than coordinated institutional systems (Dayne et al., 2023; Welbeck et al., 2023; Yates et al., 2024).

Despite increasing attention to parenting students, relatively little qualitative research has specifically examined how college women of color describe their educational pathways following unplanned pregnancy. Existing research provides important evidence regarding time poverty, childcare, financial insecurity, institutional barriers, and other challenges experienced by student parents (Conway et al., 2021; Dayne et al., 2023; Goldrick-Rab et al., 2020; Yates et al., 2024), but less is known about how students interpret trajectories that include leaving, pausing, returning, changing educational direction, or completing a degree after an unplanned pregnancy. Greater attention to these experiences may help clarify how educational persistence can continue even when enrollment is temporarily interrupted or an original academic pathway is altered.

This study addresses this gap by examining how college women of color described the academic consequences of unplanned pregnancy and the conditions that shaped their educational pathways. Guided by an equity-centered perspective, the study focuses on academic disruption, support, retention, delayed completion, and nonlinear persistence. Rather than treating academic outcomes as a binary of dropout or completion, the analysis examines how participants navigated pregnancy-related disruption, relational and academic support, altered educational pathways, and decision-making under pressure. In doing so, the study seeks to broaden understanding of persistence by examining how students may remain oriented toward educational attainment even when pregnancy reshapes the timing, structure, or direction of their academic trajectories. Accordingly, the study addressed the following research question: How do college women of color describe the impact of unplanned pregnancy on their academic lives, including the challenges they experienced, how they managed those challenges, and the consequences for their educational pathways?

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Study Design

This study used a qualitative phenomenological design to examine how college women of color experienced and interpreted their educational pathways following unplanned pregnancy. Phenomenology provided the methodological orientation for centering lived experience and the meanings participants attributed to pregnancy-related academic disruption, persistence, interruption, return, and completion (Moustakas, 1994; Neubauer et al., 2019). Consistent with this experiential and meaning-centered orientation, reflexive thematic analysis was used to identify and interpret patterned meanings across participants’ experiences. Phenomenology informed what the analysis sought to understand, namely participants’ lived experiences and the meanings they attributed to changes in their educational pathways, whereas reflexive thematic analysis provided the analytic procedure for examining patterned meanings across these experiences. Reflexive thematic analysis was therefore used within the phenomenologically oriented study rather than treated as inherently phenomenological.

The present study represents a focused reanalysis of interview data originally collected as part of a broader qualitative investigation of the sexual and reproductive health experiences of young people. The broader project examined multiple dimensions of sexual and reproductive health, including pregnancy-related experiences, decision-making, access to care, social and relational influences, and support. Findings from the broader dataset have previously been reported with a distinct emphasis on reproductive burdens and pregnancy-related experiences among college women of color (Fazli Khalaf et al., 2026).

For the present study, the original interview data were revisited and reanalyzed in their entirety to address a distinct research focus centered specifically on educational experiences and academic pathways following unplanned pregnancy. The reanalysis examined academic disruption, persistence, institutional and relational support, interruption, return to school, altered educational trajectories, and degree completion. This analytic emphasis enabled a more detailed examination of educational consequences that were not the primary focus of the broader study or the previously published analysis.

2.2. Study Setting and Participants

Participants were recruited from a university context in the U.S. South. Inclusion criteria required participants to be women of color, to have lived in the U.S. South, to have experienced an unplanned pregnancy while studying in college, and to have been between 18 and 30 years old at the time of pregnancy. The analytic sample included 11 self-identified women of color. The majority identified as African American, with one identifying as Hispanic and two as biracial. Ages at the time of pregnancy ranged from 19 to 30 years. Seven participants reported full-term pregnancies, and four reported pregnancies that ended in abortion (Table 1).

2.3. Sampling and Recruitment

Purposive sampling was used to recruit participants with direct experience of the phenomenon under investigation. This sampling strategy was appropriate because the study sought participants whose experiences were directly relevant to understanding the educational consequences of unplanned pregnancy and the conditions shaping academic persistence, interruption, and return (Campbell et al., 2020). Recruitment occurred through multiple channels, including email distribution, social media posts, student organization networks, and flyers disseminated through campus-based platforms. Recruitment materials described the study purpose, eligibility criteria, study procedures, and research team contact information. Interested individuals contacted the research team by email and were screened for eligibility.

In the broader study from which these data originated, interviews continued until the research team determined that sufficient information had been obtained to address the study aims, based in part on the recurrence of relevant information across interviews (Fazli Khalaf et al., 2026). The resulting sample comprised 11 participants and generated detailed qualitative data through open-ended interviewing and probing. For the present focused reanalysis, the adequacy of the existing dataset was considered in relation to its information power for the specific educational research aim (Malterud et al., 2016). Participants varied in age at the time of pregnancy, pregnancy outcome, educational circumstances, experiences of academic interruption or continuation, and availability of relational and practical support. This variation provided both shared and contrasting experiences through which pregnancy-related educational pathways could be examined in depth.

2.4. Data Collection

Data were collected through individual semi-structured interviews conducted using a secure video-conferencing platform. The semi-structured format allowed participants to describe their experiences in their own words while ensuring that key areas relevant to the broader study were explored across interviews. The interview guide consisted of open-ended questions addressing sexual and reproductive health experiences, including unplanned pregnancy, pregnancy decision-making, partner and family support, access to health and university resources, emotional responses, and perceived consequences of pregnancy.

Prior to data collection, the interview guide was reviewed by two subject-matter experts to assess the relevance and clarity of the questions and their alignment with the study objectives. The research team also closely reviewed the initial interviews to assess participants’ understanding of the questions, interview flow, and whether the questions elicited relevant and sufficiently detailed information. The initial interviews indicated that the questions were clearly understood and functioned as intended; therefore, no substantive modifications to the guide were required. Probing questions were used flexibly throughout the interviews to clarify responses and encourage elaboration where appropriate.

For the present focused reanalysis, the complete interview dataset was revisited, with particular attention to material concerning enrollment, course withdrawal, interruption of study, delayed graduation, changes in academic plans or majors, professor support, childcare, employment, return to school, and degree completion.

Before each interview, participants received information describing the study purpose, procedures, confidentiality protections, voluntary nature of participation, and potential risks. Participants provided informed consent before participation. To protect privacy, participants were invited to use pseudonyms and could keep their cameras off during the interviews. Interviews were audio-recorded with participant permission and transcribed verbatim. Transcripts were reviewed against the recordings for accuracy, identifying information was removed, and the verified transcripts constituted the dataset used for analysis.

2.5. Data Analysis

For the present study, the complete interview dataset was revisited and reanalyzed using reflexive thematic analysis informed by Braun and Clarke’s six recursive phases: familiarization with the data, generation of initial codes, development of candidate themes, review of themes, definition and naming of themes, and production of the analytic narrative (Braun & Clarke, 2006, 2021). Within the phenomenological orientation of the study, reflexive thematic analysis provided a systematic approach for identifying and interpreting patterned meanings across participants’ lived educational experiences while maintaining attention to how participants understood pregnancy-related disruption, persistence, support, and educational change.

Analysis began with repeated reading of the complete transcripts to re-establish familiarity with the dataset and identify material relevant to the educational focus of the present study. Initial coding captured experiences related to interruption of study, course withdrawal, dropout, delayed graduation, changes in majors or academic plans, return to school, professor flexibility, family and partner support, childcare, financial pressures, and educational decision-making. Coding remained responsive to meanings identified within the data and was not restricted to these preliminary areas.

Multiple researchers independently reviewed and coded relevant transcript material and subsequently compared their interpretations. When initial coding differed, the researchers returned to the corresponding transcript passages and discussed the contextual and interpretive basis of the respective codes. Through this process, overlapping codes were refined or combined, distinctions between conceptually different codes were clarified, and the developing coding structure was revised. The purpose of these discussions was to strengthen interpretive depth and coherence rather than to calculate inter-rater reliability.

Codes were subsequently examined across participants to identify broader patterns of shared and contrasting educational experiences. Candidate themes were developed and iteratively reviewed against both the coded material and the complete dataset. Particular attention was given to variation in pregnancy outcomes, educational trajectories, and support circumstances. Themes were refined to capture not only whether participants remained enrolled or left school but also how educational pathways were interrupted, resumed, redirected, or completed under changing personal, relational, and institutional conditions. Direct quotations were selected to substantiate the analytic interpretations and preserve the contextual meaning of participants’ narratives.

2.6. Trustworthiness and Rigor

Several strategies supported the credibility and interpretive rigor of the study. Engagement by multiple researchers during analysis provided opportunities to examine developing interpretations from different perspectives, compare alternative readings of the data, and critically discuss the evolving coding and thematic structure.

Reflexive bracketing was used before and throughout the analytic process to increase awareness of pre-existing assumptions that could influence interpretation (Tufford & Newman, 2012). Researchers documented assumptions and expectations concerning pregnancy, gender, education, academic persistence, and systems of support. These reflections were revisited during coding and theme development to identify instances in which prior expectations might be shaping interpretation. When such instances arose, researchers returned to the relevant transcript material and considered alternative interpretations before codes and themes were refined. This reflexive process was intended to make researcher preconceptions visible and reduce the likelihood that they would be imposed uncritically on participants’ experiences. The research team also considered how their disciplinary backgrounds, research experiences, and relationship to the study topic could shape attention to particular aspects of participants’ experiences and the interpretation of emerging themes.

The semi-structured interview format, open-ended questioning, and use of probing generated detailed and contextually rich data. Variation in participants’ pregnancy outcomes, educational circumstances, support systems, and experiences of interruption, continuation, and return further strengthened the analytic depth of the study by enabling examination of both common and contrasting educational pathways. Direct quotations were used to substantiate interpretations and demonstrate the relationship between participants’ narratives and the themes developed through analysis.

2.7. Ethical Considerations

The research protocol was approved by the Institutional Review Board of North Carolina A&T State University (IRB No. HS23-0185). Participation was voluntary, and informed consent was obtained before each interview. Participants were advised that they could discontinue participation at any point without consequence.

Because the interviews involved sensitive sexual and reproductive health experiences, procedures were designed to minimize disclosure risk and protect participant privacy. Interviews were conducted through secure, password-protected videoconferencing, and participants could keep their cameras turned off. Audio files and transcripts were maintained in secure research storage accessible only to the research team. During transcript preparation, identifying details were removed, and audio files were deleted after transcript accuracy had been verified. Consent documentation was maintained separately from the qualitative research data to further protect confidentiality.

3. Results

Four themes captured how unplanned pregnancy intersected with participants’ educational pathways: (1) pregnancy as academic disruption; (2) relational and academic support for persistence; (3) nonlinear educational pathways involving delay, return, redirection, and completion; and (4) educational decision-making under pregnancy pressure. Across these themes, pregnancy did not produce a uniform educational outcome. Rather, participants’ pathways reflected the interaction of pregnancy-related demands with the timing of pregnancy, available support, financial and caregiving responsibilities, and flexibility within their educational environments.

Theme 1: Pregnancy as Academic Disruption

Unplanned pregnancy disrupted participants’ education through multiple pathways, including immediate withdrawal, departure from graduate study, reduced participation in campus life, and difficulty maintaining employment or academic functioning while experiencing pregnancy-related symptoms. Importantly, disruption was not confined to childbirth or parenting. For some participants, educational consequences emerged during pregnancy itself, particularly when pregnancy coincided with an educational transition or introduced physical and emotional demands that competed with academic participation.

Participant 1 described her first pregnancy as occurring just as she began a health professions program. The timing of the pregnancy contributed to immediate withdrawal from the program.

“The 1st time dropped out right away” … “I had just started the… school [a professional degree program] in … [a state in the US south]” … “I was literally just starting” … “The whole time I thought I was sick and nervous from starting school, and I was pregnant.”

Her experience illustrates the importance of timing within an educational pathway. Pregnancy occurred at the point of entry into a demanding professional program, before she had established continuity within that program. The resulting disruption was therefore not simply an interruption of an established educational routine; it coincided with and displaced the beginning of a new academic trajectory. Participant 3 described leaving graduate school because of the combined demands of pregnancy, marriage, and early motherhood:

“Yeah, I dropped out because at the time, I was really overwhelmed” … “Then getting married right afterward, and then having a baby six months in—that was a lot. So even though I started grad school, I couldn’t handle it.”

Here, withdrawal reflected the accumulation of simultaneous life transitions rather than pregnancy operating as an isolated event. Graduate education became difficult to sustain when pregnancy, marriage, and early motherhood converged, demonstrating how academic disruption could emerge from competing demands in the context of available support and resources. For other participants, disruption occurred without formal withdrawal. Participant 6 remained enrolled but substantially reduced her engagement with campus:

“The only time I was really on campus was to go to class, and if we had to do group projects, I’d stay and go to the library” … “But other than that, I was kind of avoiding everything and everyone in every aspect.”

Her experience distinguishes continued enrollment from continued academic and social participation. Although she remained formally connected to the institution, her engagement narrowed to activities necessary for completing academic requirements. Pregnancy-related disruption therefore included forms of withdrawal that would not necessarily be visible through enrollment status alone.

Together, these experiences show that academic disruption operated along a continuum rather than as a single outcome. It ranged from formal withdrawal to reduced campus engagement and difficulty sustaining the employment and emotional stability that supported continued enrollment. Pregnancy therefore affected education not only through whether participants remained in school but also through the extent to which they could participate fully and sustain the conditions necessary for academic continuation.

Theme 2: Relational and Academic Support for Persistence

Participants who remained enrolled or returned to school often described support as central to their academic persistence. Support came from partners, mothers, partners’ family members, childcare networks, and individual professors. These forms of support helped participants manage competing demands rather than removing the difficulty of pregnancy or parenting.

Participant 1’s two pregnancies illustrated the importance of partner support. In contrast to her first pregnancy, when she dropped out and lacked support, she described her second pregnancy as more manageable because of a stable relationship and practical help from her boyfriend.

“So, it was different this time around, because, I'm in a more serious relationship now” … “Yeah, we live together” … “being pregnant and in school has been really, really difficult” … “It was more possible because I have more support” … “with the [certificate program], I had boyfriend support.”

She also described how this support helped her manage work, childcare, and evening classes.

“I'll get off of work. Go straight home changing my uniform, my nursing uniform. Just get my son ready in less than 15 min, drop him off with boyfriend” … “then go straight to class from 5 to 9 and come back” … “It was rough, but I mean, I knew with help I feel like I can.”

Her experience also illustrates that educational persistence did not necessarily involve continuation along the original academic pathway. After leaving her initial professional degree program, she later pursued a shorter-term certificate program. This shift represented an adaptation of her educational trajectory rather than disengagement from education. Within the context of pregnancy, parenting, employment, and available support, the shorter credential pathway offered a more feasible route for continued educational and occupational advancement.

Participant 5 described a different form of support: a strong family expectation that she complete her education despite pregnancy and parenting:

“When I was busy with school, my relationship with my children's father became stressed because I was determined to finish school” … “I had one child and then another one on the way, but regardless, I knew I had to finish school” … “my mother instilled in me that I had to finish. You finish what you start. Period.”

Her experience demonstrates that persistence could also be reinforced through relational expectations and an internalized commitment to degree completion. At the same time, her description of relationship strain shows that educational persistence could carry interpersonal costs rather than representing an uncomplicated outcome.

Participant 7 described practical childcare support from the father’s family:

“Once they saw that I was staying in school, had moved out of the projects, and got a townhouse, his mom told me, ‘Anything you need, we’re here for you.’ And they were” … “his parents helped me with childcare while I was in school” … “They would pick her up from daycare, watch her when I needed to study—they really helped.”

Childcare support directly protected time for class attendance and studying. In this case, an informal caregiving network helped participants manage demands that otherwise competed with academic responsibilities.

Institutional support appeared most concretely through professor-level flexibility. Participant 8 described accommodations that enabled continuity during pregnancy:

“We decided to keep the baby. I continued my studies, and although it was challenging, I maintained good grades” … “My professors were very understanding” … “Some professors allowed me to work remotely, and others offered me the option to take an incomplete and return to finish the course after the baby was born.”

Participant 10 similarly described professor flexibility with attendance and deadlines:

“my professors have been very understanding” … “if I need to Zoom into a class, they allow it” … “If I need extra time to complete assignments, they are flexible with that as well.”

These experiences suggest that academic flexibility may help prevent temporary pregnancy-related needs from becoming permanent educational interruptions. However, participants described such support primarily through the actions of individual professors rather than through clearly identified institution-wide systems. In their descriptions, faculty flexibility appeared to facilitate continued enrollment when pregnancy-related circumstances required adjustments to academic requirements.

Across these experiences, persistence was not attributable to motivation alone. Persistence became more feasible when participants had access to combinations of childcare, relational support, family encouragement, and academic flexibility. Support functioned as a practical resource that helped redistribute time, caregiving, and academic demands, thereby supporting the conditions for educational continuation.

Theme 3: Nonlinear Educational Pathways: Delay, Return, Major Change, and Completion

Participants’ educational experiences challenged a simple retained-versus-dropped-out distinction. Leaving school did not necessarily represent permanent educational departure, just as remaining committed to education did not necessarily produce uninterrupted progression. Participants described pathways characterized by temporary withdrawal, delayed graduation, major changes, transfer-related setbacks, intensified course schedules, postpartum return, employment, parenting, and eventual degree completion.

Participant 4 described a substantial interruption followed by educational redirection:

“My life definitely got turned upside down. I didn’t graduate on time—I ended up taking a year and a half off” … “I had two, maybe three jobs. Then, when I went back to school, I changed my major” … “I changed my major and ended up doing so well in school—I was on the Dean’s List every semester” … “graduated in a year and a half.”

Her experience illustrates that academic interruption and later success were not mutually exclusive. The pregnancy altered the timing and structure of her education, but the interruption was followed by reentry, a change in academic direction, and eventual completion. Her return, however, required an intensified academic schedule:

“I just took every class I needed and maxed out my schedule” … “I did 9 hours in summer school, then 18 hours per semester until I was done” … “I got it approved so I could graduate...”

Completion therefore involved additional academic effort to make up for time lost during the interruption. This time was partly recovered by taking unusually demanding course loads, indicating that eventual graduation did not erase the educational cost of the earlier disruption.

Participant 5 similarly described temporary withdrawal surrounding childbirth followed by a rapid return:

“I needed to go ahead and just take off from college to give birth” … “And then the 6 weeks after, that impacted my education. But I still had the drive to get right back in it as soon as the opportunity was available” … “I had to go ahead and return in the summer and the fall.”

Her experience demonstrates that temporary departure could function as an adaptation to childbirth and recovery rather than as abandonment of educational goals. Persistence, in this context, included the ability to interrupt education and subsequently reenter it.

Participant 7 experienced a longer and more structurally complicated pathway:

“when I transferred, none of my elementary education classes counted toward my new major, so I basically had to start over” … “I was in school full-time, working full-time, raising my daughter, and I finally graduated with my bachelor’s degree in Birth through Kindergarten Education in 2011.”

Her trajectory shows how parenting demands could intersect with institutional processes such as transfer-credit loss. In her experience, educational delay was therefore not attributable solely to pregnancy or parenting; the loss of transfer credits added to the time and labor required to complete her degree.

Participant 4 described how these tensions continued beyond undergraduate completion. She later attempted graduate education while working and parenting:

“Then I tried grad school, but it was just too much—working full-time and having a young child” … “Plus, I was working crazy hours. I had two jobs, and we had our own business, so it was just a lot.”

These experiences position persistence as a longitudinal and nonlinear process. Participants could leave and return, change direction, accelerate later coursework, or complete one degree while finding further education unsustainable. Educational outcomes after pregnancy may therefore be better understood through trajectories of interruption, adaptation, reentry, and completion than through a single measure of retention at one point in time.

Theme 4: Educational Decision-Making Under Pregnancy Pressure

Participants’ pregnancy-related and educational decisions were embedded within broader material and relational circumstances. Financial security, employment, housing, partner involvement, family support, geographic location, and academic timing were important considerations as participants evaluated both pregnancy and continued education. Pregnancy decision-making and educational decision-making therefore frequently occurred in relation to one another rather than as separate processes.

Participant 1 described financial insecurity and limited partner support alongside concern that having a child would interrupt her education:

“I was excited, but I was scared because I knew I wasn't financially stable or ready to have a baby” … “Then I ended up by myself like I said, so that was scary too. Figuring out how I was gonna support the baby” … “I realized once I had the baby, school was gonna have to be put on pause.”

Her experience illustrates how anticipated educational interruption became part of evaluating the feasibility of continuing a pregnancy. Schooling was considered alongside financial capacity and partner support, demonstrating how educational consequences could enter pregnancy-related decision-making before an academic interruption actually occurred.

Participant 8 described a contrasting configuration of circumstances:

“Not because I thought I couldn’t handle it—because I knew I had enough support” … “Even though I was still in school and working, I knew I could take care of myself during the pregnancy and figure things out” … “I knew my family would support me no matter what I decided.”

For her, continued enrollment and employment did not make pregnancy uncomplicated, but the perceived availability of support increased the feasibility of managing these responsibilities simultaneously. Comparison across these experiences suggests that educational status alone did not determine pregnancy-related decisions; the resources surrounding that status were also relevant to whether participants perceived continued pregnancy and continued education as manageable together.

Participant 10 described an earlier pregnancy decision in relation to employment, housing, and perceived readiness:

“I also didn’t have a good job, didn’t have my own home, and was still living with family. He was in the same situation” … “The timing just wasn’t ideal.”

Her emphasis on timing reflects how pregnancy decisions were evaluated against multiple indicators of stability rather than against a single circumstance. Employment and housing were considered alongside education as interconnected dimensions of perceived readiness.

Participant 11 further illustrated the geographic dimension of decision-making and access to care:

“External. I had it done back home in [state name]. He and I split the cost—half and half” … “I live in [state name] for school, but I don’t stay on campus. This isn’t my permanent address—I’m just here for the school year.”

Her experience demonstrates that being a college student could involve geographic mobility between the location of education and established support or healthcare environments. Accessing reproductive healthcare outside the state in which she attended school illustrates how educational location and healthcare access could occupy different geographic contexts.

Across participants, pregnancy and educational decisions were considered in relation to interconnected factors, including financial resources, housing, employment, relationships, family support, academic timing, and access to care. Pregnancy outcome alone therefore did not explain subsequent educational pathways. Rather, participants’ experiences indicate that the feasibility of continuing education was related to the broader configuration of resources, constraints, and support surrounding the pregnancy.

4. Discussion

This study examined how college women of color experienced educational disruption, continuation, and return following unplanned pregnancy. The findings extend existing research on student parents by showing that pregnancy-related educational pathways cannot be adequately understood through a simple distinction between retention and dropout. Participants remained enrolled, withdrew temporarily, changed educational direction, returned after interruption, completed degrees on delayed timelines, or pursued alternative credentials. These pathways were experienced in the context of the timing and demands of pregnancy, material circumstances, relational support, and institutional flexibility.

A central contribution of this study is its conceptualization of persistence as potentially nonlinear. Tinto (2017) distinguishes institutional retention from student persistence, emphasizing that institutions seek to retain students whereas students seek to persist toward educational completion, which may not always occur through continuous enrollment within the same institution. The present findings extend this distinction by illustrating how persistence following unplanned pregnancy may include temporary withdrawal, changes in educational direction, pursuit of alternative credentials, reentry, and delayed completion. For some participants, interruption did not represent abandonment of educational goals but adaptation to changed circumstances. One participant, for example, moved from her original professional degree pathway to a shorter-term certificate pathway while continuing to pursue educational and occupational advancement. Pregnancy-related persistence may therefore be better understood longitudinally, with attention to continued educational orientation across interruption, redirection, reentry, and completion.

This interpretation is particularly relevant for students managing pregnancy alongside employment, financial pressures, and caregiving responsibilities. Previous research has documented substantial time constraints, childcare demands, financial insecurity, and competing responsibilities among student parents (Conway et al., 2021; Dayne et al., 2023; Goldrick-Rab et al., 2020; Williams et al., 2022). The present findings further indicate that educational disruption may begin during pregnancy, before parenting responsibilities emerge. Pregnancy-related symptoms, emotional strain, uncertainty, and the timing of pregnancy within an academic program were associated with changes in participants’ employment, campus engagement, and ability to remain enrolled. Pregnancy itself should therefore be recognized as potentially consequential to educational persistence rather than educational disruption being understood solely through the later demands of parenting.

Support was central to participants’ descriptions of educational continuation and return. Childcare, partner assistance, family encouragement, and professor flexibility helped participants manage competing responsibilities. This finding is consistent with research showing the importance of social, financial, and practical support for student parents (Dayne et al., 2023; Goldrick-Rab et al., 2020; Williams et al., 2022; Yates et al., 2024). However, participants more frequently described support received through individual relationships than through formal institutional systems. Academic flexibility was often associated with individual professors, while childcare and logistical assistance were largely provided by partners and family members. Thus, educational continuation appeared to be closely related to students’ personal support networks and whether they encountered faculty members willing and able to respond flexibly.

This distinction between personal support and institutional support has important equity implications. Students with reliable childcare, supportive partners or family members, and accommodating professors may be better positioned to manage pregnancy-related disruption than students without these resources. Tinto (2012) argues that institutions have a responsibility for establishing conditions that promote student success, including structured academic, social, and financial support. Viewed in this context, reliance on individual goodwill may leave pregnant and parenting students with uneven access to the conditions needed for persistence. These findings suggest that institutional support may help reduce the extent to which educational continuation depends on a student’s personal circumstances or ability to negotiate assistance independently.

Title IX provides an important legal foundation by prohibiting discrimination based on pregnancy and parental status in educational programs receiving federal financial assistance (U.S. Department of Education, 2026). However, legal protection alone does not constitute a comprehensive institutional support system. The present findings suggest several potential approaches for strengthening institutional support, although these should be understood as implications rather than interventions evaluated in this study. Institutions could strengthen support by establishing clearly communicated procedures for pregnancy-related academic adjustments, identifying a consistent point of contact for pregnant and parenting students, and providing faculty and advisors with guidance on available accommodations and resources. Students who interrupt their education may also benefit from structured reentry planning that addresses course sequencing, degree requirements, transfer credits, financial aid, and timelines for return.

Childcare and financial support are similarly relevant to persistence. Prior research has identified childcare availability, affordability, employment demands, and basic-needs insecurity as substantial challenges for student parents (Dayne et al., 2023; Goldrick-Rab et al., 2020; Williams et al., 2022). Institutions may not be able to provide on-campus childcare in every setting, but they could maintain accessible information about campus and community childcare options, connect eligible students with financial assistance, and integrate parenting-related needs into advising and student-support systems. Emergency financial assistance may also be relevant when pregnancy-related health needs, reduced employment, childcare, or other unexpected expenses threaten continued enrollment. Such approaches could move support beyond compliance toward a more coordinated support infrastructure for pregnant and parenting students.

The findings also indicate that pregnancy outcome alone did not determine educational trajectories. Participants who continued pregnancies described educational demands associated with childbirth, recovery, childcare, and parenting, whereas participants whose pregnancies ended in abortion described other pressures, including symptoms, cost, travel, privacy, and access to care. These experiences were embedded within broader circumstances involving employment, housing, relationships, financial security, academic timing, and available support. This finding is consistent with evidence that reproductive decision-making among college students is shaped by socioeconomic resources and gendered inequalities (Mann et al., 2024) and that reproductive healthcare access varies across higher education contexts (Rohrer & Modrek, 2023; U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2025). These findings suggest that institutions should avoid assuming that pregnancy produces a uniform educational experience or that pregnancy-related support is relevant only to students who subsequently parent.

Taken together, the findings support a broader understanding of educational persistence following unplanned pregnancy. Tinto’s distinction between institutional retention and student persistence is useful because it shifts attention from whether a student remains continuously enrolled toward whether the student continues pursuing educational attainment (Tinto, 2017). The present study extends this perspective by showing how pregnancy may require students to alter the timing, structure, or direction of that pursuit. Temporary withdrawal, credential change, delayed completion, or reentry may represent adaptive forms of persistence rather than educational disengagement. At the institutional level, recognizing these pathways requires support strategies that address not only continuous enrollment but also interruption, return, redirection, and eventual completion.

5. Limitations and Future Research

This study has several limitations. The sample included 11 college women of color within one regional and institutional context, and the findings should not be assumed to represent experiences across all higher education settings. Institutional characteristics, geographic context, available resources, and local policy environments may shape both pregnancy-related educational disruption and access to support. Although the broader interviews included questions about the impact of unplanned pregnancy on participants’ academic lives, including challenges, management of those challenges, and academic consequences, educational persistence was not the exclusive focus of the original study. Consequently, some dimensions of persistence, institutional support, interruption, and reentry may not have been explored with the depth possible in a study designed specifically around educational pathways.

Future research should examine pregnancy-related educational pathways across different institutional types, geographic regions, and student populations. Longitudinal research could further clarify how temporary interruption, reentry, redirection, and completion unfold over time and how formal institutional supports relate to these pathways.

6. Conclusions

This study indicates that educational pathways following unplanned pregnancy may be nonlinear and cannot be fully understood through a binary distinction between retention and dropout. Participants described continued enrollment, temporary interruption, changes in educational direction, reentry, delayed completion, and alternative credential pathways. These experiences illustrate that interruption does not necessarily indicate disengagement from education and may instead reflect adaptation to changing academic, financial, caregiving, and personal circumstances.

Persistence was associated with available support, including family, partners, childcare networks, and flexible faculty. The findings suggest that reducing reliance on students’ personal support networks or the discretion of individual faculty members may provide more consistent conditions for educational continuation. Higher education institutions could better support pregnant and parenting students through coordinated and accessible academic, financial, childcare, and reentry assistance. Recognizing interruption, adaptation, and return as possible components of persistence may help institutions create more equitable pathways toward educational completion.