Hofferth S L, Reid L, Mott F L
Department of Family Studies, University of Maryland, College Park, USA.
Fam Plann Perspect. 2001 Nov-Dec;33(6):259-67.
In recent studies, the effects of teenage childbearing on the schooling of young women have been smaller than those in earlier research. The discrepancy has been attributed to the use in the later studies of controls for unmeasured differences between young women who start childbearing early and those who do not, but could instead reflect changes in the effect of early childbearing over time.
Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of the Labor Market Experience of Youth and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics are used to identify the reasons for this difference. Logistic regression, ordinary least-squares regression and fixed-effects models examine the impact of early childbearing on rates of high school graduation and college attendance, and number of years of schooling completed through age 29.
The two data sets show a significant negative impact of a teenage birth on rates and years of completed schooling. For example, teenage mothers complete 1.9-2.2 fewer years of education than do women who delay their first birth until age 30 or older. Moreover, compared with women who give birth at age 30 or older, teenage mothers have odds of high school completion 10-12% as high and odds of postsecondary schooling 14-29% as high. Unobserved differences between young mothers and their childless peers reduce, but do not eliminate, the effects of early births. Effects on high school completion declined in recent periods because more young women completed high school, regardless of the timing of their first birth. However, the gap between early and later childbearers in postsecondary school attendance widened from 27 to 44 percentage points between the early 1960s and the early 1990s.
Given the current importance of a college education, teenage childbearers today are at least as disadvantaged as those of past generations.
在最近的研究中，青少年生育对年轻女性学业的影响比早期研究中的影响要小。这种差异被归因于后期研究中对早期生育的年轻女性和未生育的年轻女性之间未测量差异的控制，但这也可能反映了早期生育影响随时间的变化。
利用全国青年劳动力市场经验纵向调查和收入动态面板研究的数据来确定这种差异的原因。逻辑回归、普通最小二乘法回归和固定效应模型研究了早期生育对高中毕业率、大学入学率以及到29岁完成的受教育年限的影响。
这两个数据集显示青少年生育对完成学业的比率和年限有显著的负面影响。例如，青少年母亲比那些将首次生育推迟到30岁或更晚的女性少完成1.9 - 2.2年的教育。此外，与30岁或更晚生育的女性相比，青少年母亲完成高中学业的几率是其10 - 12%，接受高等教育的几率是其14 - 29%。年轻母亲与其未育同龄人之间未观察到的差异减少了，但并未消除早育的影响。近期对高中毕业率的影响有所下降，因为更多年轻女性完成了高中学业，无论其首次生育时间如何。然而，在20世纪60年代初到90年代初期间，早育和晚育女性在高等教育入学率上的差距从27个百分点扩大到了44个百分点。
鉴于当前大学教育的重要性，如今的青少年生育者至少与过去几代人一样处于不利地位。
