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Title: The Consequences of Early Childbearing
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Moore, Kristin Anderson
Burt, Martha R.
The Consequences of Early Childbearing
In: Private Crisis, Public Cost: Policy Perspectives on Teenage Childbearing. K.A. Moore and M.R. Burt, eds. Washington DC: Urban Institute Press, 1982
Cohort(s): Young Women
Publisher: Urban Institute
Keyword(s): Age at First Birth; Childbearing; Childbearing, Adolescent; Earnings; Educational Attainment; Labor Force Participation; Mothers; Poverty

This chapter reviews findings to date on the impact of early childbearing on: (1) subsequent educational attainment of the parent; (2) medical risks for the mother and child; (3) marriage and divorce rates; (4) subsequent fertility; (5) labor force participation and earnings; and (6) dependency on governmental support programs. The authors estimate a path model of the impact of age at first birth on the probability of being in poverty at age 27 using data from the NLS of Young Women and the PSID. It was found that the impact of an early birth differed among various population subgroups with lower educational attainment of the teenage mother and her larger family size impacting labor force participation rates and earnings and thus chances of being in poverty. Postponement of a first birth netted the NLS women studied $193 (in 1975 dollars) or $293 (in 1980 dollars) for each year the birth was delayed. The probability of being in poverty fell by an average of two percentage points per year of delayed childbirth.
Bibliography Citation
Moore, Kristin Anderson and Martha R. Burt. "The Consequences of Early Childbearing" In: Private Crisis, Public Cost: Policy Perspectives on Teenage Childbearing. K.A. Moore and M.R. Burt, eds. Washington DC: Urban Institute Press, 1982