Age at first birth and women's midlife health: Cohort and race differences across the 20th century

We test whether the negative association between socially “early” childbearing and poor health in later adulthood, well-established in prior research, differs across distinct historical contexts in the U.S.We further examine whether socioeconomic status explains this shift in the impact of childbearing timing and poor health and whether there are additional differences across racial groups. To address these questions, we pooled data from two nationally representative longitudinal surveys: the National Longitudinal Surveys’ Mature Women (born 1922–1937) and Youth 1979 (born 1957–1964). Together, these NLS cohorts include women who entered adolescence before and after the major economic, political, and demographic changes in the latter half of the twentieth century that gave women access to socioeconomic structures previously limited to White men. These data thus provide a unique opportunity to test cohort and racial differences. Overall, findings suggest that the negative association of young childbearing, which included adolescent childbearing and childbearing in early 20s, with midlife health grew across the two cohorts, with this largely explained by differences in adult educational attainment. This cohort shift appeared especially large for White women compared to Black women. This study highlights the importance of sociopolitical context in shaping the health consequences of major life events like childbearing.