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Title: Effects of Early Childbearing on High School Completion Among Recent Cohorts of American Women
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Upchurch, Dawn M.
Effects of Early Childbearing on High School Completion Among Recent Cohorts of American Women
Ph.D. Dissertation, Johns Hopkins University, 1989
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: UMI - University Microfilms, Bell and Howell Information and Learning
Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; Behavior; Childbearing; Childbearing, Adolescent; Educational Attainment; High School Completion/Graduates; Hispanics; Women

While most of the previous studies on the possible influence of early childbearing on educational attainment have assumed the direction of causality from early childbearing to truncated education, few have actually examined the precise timing of events. The purpose of this study was to re-examine the relationship between early childbearing and educational attainment (specifically high school completion) with particular emphasis on the timing and sequencing of a birth and dropping out of school. The conceptual framework was based on a modified status attainment model incorporating early adolescent characteristics as well as fertility-related behaviors. The data were obtained from the NLSY. Two statistical methodologies were employed: analysis of binary data and analysis of survival data. The major finding of this study is that the timing and sequencing of a birth relative to the schooling process influences a woman's eventual graduation; women who become mothers while still in s chool are no less likely to graduate than women who progress through school without a birth or drop out experience. While some women drop out because they are pregnant, the majority of women drop out for reasons other than impending motherhood and go on to become mothers. The second major finding suggests there are important racial differences in the determinants of high school completion and in the processes of childbearing and schooling. Black school-age mothers were more likely to graduate than similar whites or Hispanics. The findings suggest the effects of early childbearing on schooling may have been overstated in previous research and that the causal mechanisms underlying the relationship of childbearing and schooling are more complex than suggested by earlier researchers.
Bibliography Citation
Upchurch, Dawn M. Effects of Early Childbearing on High School Completion Among Recent Cohorts of American Women. Ph.D. Dissertation, Johns Hopkins University, 1989.