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The Educational Consequences of Teen Childbearing

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Demography

Abstract

A huge literature shows that teen mothers face a variety of detriments across the life course, including truncated educational attainment. To what extent is this association causal? The estimated effects of teen motherhood on schooling vary widely, ranging from no discernible difference to 2.6 fewer years among teen mothers. The magnitude of educational consequences is therefore uncertain, despite voluminous policy and prevention efforts that rest on the assumption of a negative and presumably causal effect. This study adjudicates between two potential sources of inconsistency in the literature—methodological differences or cohort differences—by using a single, high-quality data source: namely, The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. We replicate analyses across four different statistical strategies: ordinary least squares regression; propensity score matching; and parametric and semiparametric maximum likelihood estimation. Results demonstrate educational consequences of teen childbearing, with estimated effects between 0.7 and 1.9 fewer years of schooling among teen mothers. We select our preferred estimate (0.7), derived from semiparametric maximum likelihood estimation, on the basis of weighing the strengths and limitations of each approach. Based on the range of estimated effects observed in our study, we speculate that variable statistical methods are the likely source of inconsistency in the past. We conclude by discussing implications for future research and policy, and recommend that future studies employ a similar multimethod approach to evaluate findings.

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Notes

  1. Two-step probit estimation is sometimes used instead to accommodate the binary nature of teen childbearing.

  2. Whether miscarriage is a random event is the subject of some debate (see Ashcraft et al. 2013; Fletcher and Wolfe 2009).

  3. Respondents without sampling weights were recruited in the field to complete cells for the genetic oversample of sibling pairs, or attended a school outside the 80 school communities selected in the Add Health design.

  4. Variables with more than 4 % missingness include parent’s education and income, and the respondents’ grades in math, history, and science.

  5. We replicated analyses using an additional instrument—age at menarche—but found no differences.

  6. This test was performed using a linear IV regression model. It rests on the assumption that one instrument is valid and then goes on to test the validity of remaining instruments.

  7. Nearly all cases were retained (6,849 control and 890 treatment cases); the propensity score estimation was sufficiently balanced (results available upon request).

  8. Lee (2010) estimated the treatment effect of teen childbearing on college attendance at Wave III (b = –0.16, p < .001). A replication using nearly identical covariates and following women through Wave IV showed a smaller treatment effect (b = -–0.05, p < .001), which is consistent with the life cycle argument further elaborated in the Discussion section.

  9. This reduced our sample to 972 women, 890 of whom had a teen birth and 120 of whom had a teen miscarriage.

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Acknowledgments

Kane is the corresponding author; she carried out most of the statistical analysis and wrote the first draft of this article. She was also responsible for coordinating input from coauthors on subsequent drafts. This research uses data from Add Health, a program project directed by Kathleen Mullan Harris and designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and funded by grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations. Special acknowledgment is due Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Information on how to obtain the Add Health data files is available on the Add Health website (http://www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth). This research received support from the Population Research Training grant (T32 HD007168) and the Population Research Infrastructure Program (R24 HD050924) awarded to the Carolina Population Center at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Opinions reflect those of the authors and not necessarily those of the granting agencies. An earlier version of this article was presented at the 2012 meeting of the American Sociological Association in Denver, CO. The authors wish to thank Jason Fletcher, Ron Rindfuss, Duncan Thomas, and participants of the 2012 Duke-UNC Demography Daze Symposium for providing helpful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 123 W. Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516, USA

    Jennifer B. Kane

  2. Department of Sociology and Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    S. Philip Morgan & Kathleen Mullan Harris

  3. Department of Economics and Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    David K. Guilkey

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  1. Jennifer B. Kane
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Correspondence to Jennifer B. Kane.

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Kane, J.B., Morgan, S.P., Harris, K.M. et al. The Educational Consequences of Teen Childbearing. Demography 50, 2129–2150 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-013-0238-9

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