Risking the Future Adolescent Sexuality, Pregnancy, and Childbearing, Volume II: Working Papers and Statistical Appendices (1987) / Chapter Skim
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6 Social and Economic Consequences of Teenage Childbearing
6 Social and Economic Consequences of Teenage Childbearing
Pages 123-144
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From page 123... ...
serious consequences for recent birth cohorts of young women and men than for earlier birth cohorts of young women and men? Research has shown substantial variation among early childbearers in economic wel1-being, and it is important to know why some do well and others don't.
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From page 124... ...
For example, if an early first birth is associated with reduced schooling, which is, in turn, associated with lower earnings, and lower income, then an early first birth is indirectly associated with lower family income later on. The total of the direct impacts of age at first birth and its indirect impacts through other variables is called the total effect of age at first birth.
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From page 125... ...
This is then associated in a statistical analysis with education, number of children or family income. The coefficients reported, therefore, show what difference there is in years of schooling, for example, between youth who differ by one year of age at first birth.
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From page 126... ...
Card and Wise ( 1978) for example, found that young women who bear a child while in high school not only were of lower socioeconomic status when they were in ninth grade, but already had lower academic abilities and lower educational expectations than their classmates, factors which also predict poor school performance and poor later life chances.
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From page 127... ...
In their 17 year follow-up of adolescent childbearers, Furstenberg and Brooks-Gunn (1985) found a strong association between staying in school and attending a special school for teen mothers.
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From page 128... ...
A recent analysis (Marsiglio, 1986) based on the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, waves 1979-1983, also found, net of factors such as parental education, family structure, race, region and religion, that young men who reported fathering a child during their teen years had completed significantly fewer years of schooling by 1983 than those who did not report having fathered a child.
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From page 129... ...
There is evidence that the difference between the earliest and later childbearers is declining with more recent birth cohorts as a result of greater fertility declines among teen mothers {Millman and Hendershot, 19801. If this result holds up it will be an important one, since the difference in family size is the largest and clearest difference between early and later childbearers, and, as we shall see in the following pages, has the most implications for later well-being.
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From page 130... ...
Those young women who were able to control their fertility and, therefore, had the fewest children at the 17 year follow-up, were those who had been at grade for age, who had had high educational aspirations, who used birth control, who were enrolled in school, who delayed a second birth, and who were not married at the five year follow-up. Those who attended a special school and those who were in a spec tat hospital program were more likely to use birth control and, as a result, likely to have a small family 17 years later.
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From page 131... ...
Probably the most important question is what is the differential divorce proneness of marriages contracted before pregnancy, after pregnancy but before a birth, and after a first birth? Research shows that teenage mothers are less likely to experience a marital separation if they marry before the birth than if they marry after the birth; there is little difference in divorce probability between those who marry before versus after becoming pregnant (but before the birth)
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From page 132... ...
finds no effect of early childbearing while two studies find a weak positive effect of early childbearing on labor force participation (Hofferth et al., 1978; Card, 19791. In these studies early childbearers (female)
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From page 133... ...
At 1 and 5 years out of high school more males in the adolescent childbearer group were working, compared to their classmates (Card, 19771. Thus for males, each parenthood leads to entrance into the labor force.
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From page 134... ...
To the extent that age at first birth reduces schooling completed, it is likely to reduce occupational status later on. The effects of age at first birth on work experience are somewhat unclear.
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From page 135... ...
Because of these two effects, an early first birth is associated with lower income of other family members at age 27, but the effect is indirect. Family Income, Living Standards and Poverty The effects of age at first birth on income and poverty are consistent with its effects on a female respondent's own earnings and other family income.
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From page 136... ...
(For a comparison of delayers with average age childbearers at a much later point in the life cycle see also Hofferth, 1984~. Indirect Effects of Early Childbearing Even though there is no direct effect of an early first birth on family income or poverty status of young women, it is clear that there may be substantial indirect causal effects due to the impact of an early birth on schooling and on family size and composition.
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From page 137... ...
Of the effects on other family income, three quarters is due to the smaller families of delayers, one-quarter to greater schooling. Finally, of the total effect on poverty, 80 percent is due to smaller families of postponers, 12 percent to greater schooling, with 8 percent to differential labor force participation.
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From page 138... ...
Among both black and white women the primary negative indirect impact of an early first birth on later economic well-being is through its impact on family size. An early first birth means more children by age 27 with its concomitant negative impact on labor force participation and earnings (Hofferth and Moore, 1979~.
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From page 139... ...
whether economically secure, that is whether family income totalled $25,000 per year or more in 1984. The factors associated with whether a family was economically secure in 1984 were almost identical to those associated with whether a family was receiving welfare, though the direction of effects was the reverse.
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From page 140... ...
What career contingencies, factors impinging during the young adult years, affect later well-being among teen mothers? Those who married and who remained married were less likely to receive welfare and more likely to be economically secure 17 years after the first birth.
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From page 141... ...
Burt estimated total AFDC costs in 1985, due to teenage mothers, to total 16.6 billion dollars, double the 1975 Moore estimate. THE HYPOTHETICAL IMPACT OF POLICY INTERVENTIONS Further analyses addressed the relative impact on public sector costs of reducing births as opposed to mediating the effects of an
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From page 142... ...
The results show dollar savings for all approaches, but a much greater savings when a first birth is averted. The greatest savings occur when the fertility of all teenagers is reduced by 50 percent -- the number of women age 20-29 receiving AFDC payments in 1990 would be reduced by 35 percent, compared with the baseline scenario; public sector costs for AFDC, Medicaid and Food Stamps for families of women 20-29 would be reduced by an estimated $1.4 bill ion.
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From page 143... ...
That is to say, an early birth reduces schooling and increases later family size. It is these variables that reduce later labor force participation, earnings and family income, not the early birth per se.
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From page 144... ...
Thus one conclusion is that although increasing school completion is an important objective, the relationship between schooling and women's earning power is still too weak for the latter alone to raise living standards. Even today women's long tern, economic security is heavily dependent on marital success and fertility control.
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