Post-Pregnancy Factors Predicting Teen Mothers’ Educational Attainment by Age 30 in Two National Cohorts

Abstract

Women who begin childbearing as teenagers attain lower levels of education than women who delay childbearing until age 20 and later. Little is known about post-pregnancy factors that predict educational attainment among teen mothers. The current study examined whether teen mothers’ environment and experiences 2 years after their first birth contribute to their educational outcomes by age 30, net of selection factors associated with teenage childbearing. Data were from two cohorts, the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth 1979 (N = 241) and 1997 (N = 378). Multinomial logistic regression modeling was used to assess associations of post-pregnancy factors with teen mothers’ educational attainment. Having child care was associated with increased odds of attaining a high school diploma and of attending college in both cohorts. Providing regular and subsidized child care for teen mothers is an opportunity to support teen mothers in achieving higher levels of educational attainment.

Keywords

teenage childbearing educational attainment

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Acs

Koball

(2003). TANF and the status of teen mothers under age 18 (No. A-62). The Urban Institute.

Assini-Meytin

L. C.

Green

K. M.

(2015). Long-term consequences of adolescent parenthood among African–American urban youth: A propensity score matching approach. Journal of Adolescent Health, 56(5), 529–535. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2015.01.005

Child Trends. (2019). Teen births. https://www.childtrends.org/indicators/teen-births

Coleman

DeLeire

(2003). An economic model of locus of control and the human capital investment decision. Journal of Human Resources, 38(3), 701–721. https://doi.org/10.3368/jhr.0044118X211026941VIII.3.701

Coyne

C. A.

D’Onofrio

B. M.

(2012). Some (but not much) progress toward understanding teenage childbearing: A review of research from the past decade. Advances in Child Development and Behavior, 42, 113–152. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-394388-0.00004-6

Duffy

Levin-Epstein

(2002). Add it up. Teen parents and welfare. . .undercounted, oversanctioned, underserved. Center for Law and Social Policy. https://www.clasp.org/sites/default/files/public/resources-and-publications/publication-1/0090.pdf

Enders

C. K.

(2013). Dealing with missing data in developmental research. Child Development Perspectives, 7(1), 27–31. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12008Geronimus

Geronimus

A. T.

Korenman

Hillemeier

M. M.

(1994). Does young maternal age adversely affect child development? Evidence from cousin comparisons in the United States. Population and Development Review, 20, 585–609. https://doi.org/10.2307/2137602

Gordon

R. A.

Lindsay Chase-Lansdale

Brooks-Gunn

(2004). Extended households and the life course of young mothers: Understanding the associations using a sample of mothers with premature, low birth weight babies. Child Development, 75(4), 1013–1038.

10.

Hendrick

C. E.

Maslowsky

(2019). Teen mothers’ educational attainment and their children’s risk for teenage childbearing. Developmental Psychology, 55(6), 1259–1273. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000705

11.

Jaffee

Caspi

Moffitt

T. E.

Belsky

Silva

(2001). Why are children born to teen mothers at risk for adverse outcomes in young adulthood? Results from a 20-year longitudinal study. Development and Psychopathology, 13(2), 377–397. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0954579401002103

12.

Kane

J. B.

Philip Morgan

Harris

K. M.

Guilkey

D. K.

(2013). The educational consequences of teen childbearing. Demography, 50(6), 2129–2150. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-013-0238-9

13.

Kearney

M. S.

Levine

P. B.

(2015). Investigating recent trends in the US teen birth rate. Journal of Health Economics, 41, 15–29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2015.01.003

14.

Lee

(2010). The early socioeconomic effects of teenage childbearing: A propensity score matching approach. Demographic Research, 23, 697–736. https://doi.org/10.4054/demres.2010.23.25

15.

Liu

S. Y.

Chavan

N. R.

Glymour

M. M.

(2013). Type of high-school credentials and older age ADL and IADL limitations: Is the GED credential equivalent to a diploma? The Gerontologist, 53(2), 326–333. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gns077

16.

Lou

Thomas

(2015). The relationship between academic achievement and nonmarital teenage childbearing: Evidence from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 47(2), 91–98. https://doi.org/10.1363/47e2115

17.

Mahler

(1999). Dropping out of school increases chance of birth for Whites and Hispanics. Family Planning Perspectives, 31(3), 153. https://doi.org/10.2307/2991703

18.

Manlove

(1998). The influence of high school dropout and school disengagement on the risk of school-age pregnancy. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 8(2), 187–220. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327795jra0802_2

19.

Manlove

Lantos

(2018). Data point: Half of 20-to-29-year-old women who gave birth in their teens have a high school diploma. Child Trends.

20.

Manlove

Mariner

Papillo

A. R.

(2000). Subsequent fertility among teen mothers: Longitudinal analyses of recent national data. Journal of Marriage and Family, 62(2), 430–448. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2000.00430.x

21.

Marcotte

D. E.

(2013). High school dropout and teen childbearing. Economics of Education Review, 34, 258–268. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2013.01.002

22.

Maslowsky

Powers

Hendrick

C. E.

Al-Hamoodah

(2019). County-level clustering and characteristics of repeat versus first teen births in the United States, 2015–2017. Journal of Adolescent Health, 65(5), 674–680. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2019.05.031

23.

Mollborn

(2007). Making the best of a bad situation: Material resources and teenage parenthood. Journal of Marriage and Family, 69(1), 92–104. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2006.00347.x

24.

Mollborn

(2010). Exploring variation in teenage mothers’ and fathers’ educational attainment. Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 42(3), 152–159. https://doi.org/10.1363/4215210

25.

Mollborn

Blalock

(2012). Consequences of teen parents’ childcare arrangements for mothers and children. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 74(4), 846–865. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3737.2012.00988.x

26.

S.-R.

Reynolds

A. J.

(2008). Predictors of educational attainment in the Chicago Longitudinal Study. School Psychology Quarterly, 23(2), 199–229. https://doi.org/10.1037/1045-3830.23.2.199

27.

Perper

Peterson

Manlove

(2010). Diploma attainment among teen mothers. Child Trends. https://www.childtrends.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/child_trends-2010_01_22_FS_diplomaattainment.pdf

28.

Ramey

C. T.

Campbell

F. A.

Burchinal

Skinner

M. L.

Gardner

D. M.

Ramey

S. L.

(2000). Persistent effects of early childhood education on high-risk children and their mothers. Applied Developmental Science, 4(1), 2–14.

29.

Royston

(2004). Multiple imputation of missing values. The Stata Journal, 4(3), 227–241. https://doi.org/10.1177/1536867X0400400301

30.

SmithBattle

(2007). Legacies of advantage and disadvantage: The case of teen mothers. Public Health Nursing, 24(5), 409–420. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1525-1446.2007.00651.x

31.

SmithBattle

Loman

D. G.

Schneider

J. K.

Chantamit-O-Pas

(2017). An umbrella review of meta-analyses of interventions to improve maternal outcomes for teen mothers. Journal of Adolescence, 59, 97–111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2017.05.022

32.

StataCorp. (2015). Stata statistical software: Release 14. StataCorp LP.

33.

Upchurch

D. M.

(1993). Early schooling and childbearing experiences: Implications for postsecondary school attendance. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 3(4), 423–443. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327795jra0304_6

34.

US Bureau of Labor Statistics. (n.d.-b). The NLSY79. https://www.bls.gov/nls/nlsy79.htm

35.

US Bureau of Labor Statistics. (n.d.-c). National longitudinal survey of youth 1979 sample weights & clustering adjustments: Practical usage of weights. https://www.nlsinfo.org/content/cohorts/nlsy79/using-and-understanding-the-data/sample-weights-clustering-adjustments

36.

US Bureau of Labor Statistics. (n.d.-d). National longitudinal survey of youth 1979: Labor force status. https://www.nlsinfo.org/content/cohorts/nlsy79/topical-guide/employment/labor-force-status

37.

Ventura

S. J.

Hamilton

B. E.

Mathews

T. J.

(2014). National and state patterns of teen births in the United States, 1940–2013. National Vital Statistics Reports, 63(4), 1–34.

38.

Zajacova

(2012). Health in working-aged Americans: Adults with high school equivalency diploma are similar to dropouts, not high school graduates. American Journal of Public Health, 102(S2), S284–S290. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2011.300524

39.

Zajacova

Everett

B. G.

(2014). The nonequivalent health of high school equivalents. Social Science Quarterly, 95(1), 221–238. https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.12039