Student loan debt can be crushing—and not just as grads struggle to pay it off. It can take a toll decades into the future, affecting people’s ability to prepare for retirement, and new research is taking a closer look.

Prudential Financial, Inc. and the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College jointly released the latest National Retirement Risk Index research, which highlights and examines the implications of student debt on Americans’ retirement readiness, at an event in the nation’s capital.

Titled “The Impact of Student Debt on Financial Preparedness,” the event included a panel discussion that addressed not just the differential in salaries between college grads and nongraduates, but the cost of those diplomas to graduates’ eventual retirement savings.