IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/dem/demres/v23y2010i25.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The early socioeconomic effects of teenage childbearing

Author

Listed:
  • Dohoon Lee

    (New York University)

Abstract

A large body of literature has documented a negative correlation between teenage childbearing and teen mothers’ socioeconomic outcomes, yet researchers continue to disagree as to whether the association represents a true causal effect. This article extends the extant literature by employing propensity score matching with a sensitivity analysis using Rosenbaum bounds. The analysis of recent cohort data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health shows that (1) teenage childbearing has modest but significant negative effects on early socioeconomic outcomes and (2) unobserved covariates would have to be more powerful than known covariates to nullify the propensity score matching estimates. The author concludes by suggesting that more research should be done to address unobserved heterogeneity and the long-term effects of teenage childbearing for this young cohort.

Suggested Citation

  • Dohoon Lee, 2010. "The early socioeconomic effects of teenage childbearing," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 23(25), pages 697-736.
    • Handle: RePEc:dem:demres:v:23:y:2010:i:25
    DOI: 10.4054/DemRes.2010.23.25
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol23/25/23-25.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.4054/DemRes.2010.23.25?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David I. Levine & Gary Painter, 2003. "The Schooling Costs of Teenage Out-of-Wedlock Childbearing: Analysis with a Within-School Propensity-Score-Matching Estimator," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(4), pages 884-900, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Manuel Ammann & Philipp Horsch & David Oesch, 2016. "Competing with Superstars," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(10), pages 2842-2858, October.
    2. Amarendra Sharma, 2019. "Indira Awas Yojana and Housing Adequacy: An Evaluation using Propensity Score Matching," ASARC Working Papers 2019-05, The Australian National University, Australia South Asia Research Centre.
    3. Celhay, Pablo A. & Depetris-Chauvin, Emilio & Riquelme, Cristina, 2024. "When a strike strikes twice: Massive student mobilizations and teenage pregnancy in Chile," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    4. Leticia Marteleto & Molly Dondero, 2013. "Maternal age at first birth and adolescent education in Brazil," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 28(28), pages 793-820.
    5. Phillip B. Levine, 2014. "Teenage childbearing and labor market implications for women," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 1-28, July.
    6. Anna Aizer & Paul J. Devereux & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2019. "Grandparents, Mothers, or Fathers? Why Children of Teen Mothers do Worse in Life," Working Papers 201908, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    7. Santiago Garganta & María Florencia Pinto & Joaquín Zentner, 2023. "Extended School Day and Teenage Fertility in Dominican Republic," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0317, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    8. Michael F. Lovenheim & Randall Reback & Leigh Wedenoja, 2016. "How Does Access to Health Care Affect Teen Fertility and High School Dropout Rates? Evidence from School-based Health Centers," NBER Working Papers 22030, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Berthelon, Matias & Kruger, Diana, 2014. "The Impact of Adolescent Motherhood on Education in Chile," IZA Discussion Papers 8072, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Dworsky, Amy & Gitlow, Elissa, 2017. "Employment outcomes of young parents who age out of foster care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 133-140.
    11. Trinh Le & Guyonne Kalb & Felix Leung, 2015. "Outcomes for teenage mothers in the first years after birth," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 18(3), pages 255-279.
    12. Helena Holmlund, 2005. "Estimating Long-Term Consequences of Teenage Childbearing: An Examination of the Siblings Approach," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 40(3).
    13. Herrera Catalina & E. Sahn David, 2017. "Working Paper 281 - Early Childbearing, School Attainment and Cognitive Skills," Working Paper Series 2398, African Development Bank.
    14. Eva Rye Johansen & Helena Skyt Nielsen & Mette Verner, 2018. "Long-term Consequences of Early Parenthood," Economics Working Papers 2018-01-, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    15. Juan Jose Diaz & Sudhanshu Handa, 2006. "An Assessment of Propensity Score Matching as a Nonexperimental Impact Estimator: Evidence from Mexico’s PROGRESA Program," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 41(2).
    16. Kaplan, Greg & Goodman, Alissa & Walker, Ian, 2004. "Understanding the Effects of Early Motherhood in Britain: The Effects on Mothers," IZA Discussion Papers 1131, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Murat G. Kırdar & Meltem Dayıoğlu & İsmet Koç, 2018. "The Effects of Compulsory-Schooling Laws on Teenage Marriage and Births in Turkey," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 12(4), pages 640-668.
    18. Niels-Hugo Blunch, 2018. "A Teenager in Love: Multidimensional Human Capital and Teenage Pregnancy in Ghana," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(3), pages 557-573, March.
    19. Viola Angelini & Jochen Mierau, 2018. "Late-life health effects of teenage motherhood," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 39(41), pages 1081-1104.
    20. Black, Sandra E. & Devereux, Paul J. & Salvanes, Kjell G., 2004. "Fast Times at Ridgemont High? The Effect of Compulsory Schooling Laws on Teenage Births," IZA Discussion Papers 1416, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    selection bias; propensity score matching; teenage childbearing; Rosenbaum bounds;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:dem:demres:v:23:y:2010:i:25. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Editorial Office (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.demogr.mpg.de/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.