The Timing of Teenage Births: Estimating the Effect on High School Graduation and Later Life Outcomes

Danielle Sandler and Lisa Schulkind

Working Papers from U.S. Census Bureau, Center for Economic Studies

Abstract: We examine the long-term outcomes for a population of teenage mothers who give birth to their children around the end of their high school year. We compare the mothers whose high school education was interrupted by childbirth, because the child was born before her expected graduation date to mothers who did not experience the same disruption to their education. We find that mothers who give birth during the school year are seven percent less likely to graduate from high school, are less likely to be married, and have more children than their counterparts who gave birth just a few months later. The labor market outcomes for these two sets of teenage mothers are not statistically different, but with a lower likelihood of marriage and more children, the households of the treated mothers are more likely to fall below the poverty threshold. While differences in educational attainment have narrowed over time, the differences in labor market outcomes and family structure have remained stable.

JEL-codes: I26 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40 pages
Date: 2016-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu
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https://www2.census.gov/ces/wp/2016/CES-WP-16-39R.pdf Revised version, 2017 (application/pdf)
https://www2.census.gov/ces/wp/2016/CES-WP-16-39.pdf First version, 2016 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The Timing of Teenage Births: Estimating the Effect on High School Graduation and Later-Life Outcomes (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cen:wpaper:16-39

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