Late-life health effects of teenage motherhood

Viola Angelini and Jochen Mierau

Demographic Research, 2018, vol. 39, issue 41, 1081-1104

Abstract: Background: Teenage motherhood has been associated with a host of adverse outcomes over the life cycle. Less, however, is known about the impact of teenage motherhood on health later in life. Objective: To study the impact of teenage motherhood on late-life health, using a retrospective survey of almost 12,000 women aged 50+ from 13 European countries containing detailed information on early-life circumstances. Methods: We develop linear models of the association between teenage motherhood and late-life health outcomes. We control for early-life factors parametrically as well as through propensity score matching. In addition, we employ recently developed methods to derive consistent lower-bound estimates for the causal impact of teenage motherhood on late-life health outcomes. Results: We find that teenage mothers experience substantially poorer self-reported late-life health and are more likely to display depressive symptoms than nonteenage mothers. This result remains after controlling for early-life as well contemporaneous socioeconomic conditions. Contribution: We exploit recently developed empirical techniques to derive consistent lower bounds of the causal impact of teenage motherhood on health later in life using a cross-national survey of early-life and contemporaneous socioeconomic conditions.

Keywords: motherhood; self-rated health; depression; Europe; teenage childbearing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J1 Z0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Late-life Health Effects of Teenage Motherhood (2017)
Working Paper: Late-Life Health Effects of Teenage Motherhood (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:dem:demres:v:39:y:2018:i:41

DOI: 10.4054/DemRes.2018.39.41

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