Teenage childbearing and high school completion: accounting for individual heterogeneity.
Estimates from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1979-1987) indicate that differences in high school completion rates between women who have a teenage birth and those who do not are affected by the birth itself, family background characteristics and individual heterogeneity. Merely having a teenage birth leads to a 50% reduction in the likelihood of high school completion, compared with not having a teenage birth. Individual heterogeneity accounts for a 42% reduction in the likelihood of finishing high school among those who have a birth before age 17, and a 30% reduction among those who have a birth between ages 17 and 19, compared with those who do not have a teenage birth. However, individual heterogeneity accounts for less than 30% of the difference in the likelihood that black teenage mothers will complete school, compared with more than 50% among Hispanics and whites. Family background variables, such as maternal education and parental marital stability, also have positive effects on school completion.
Ahn
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University of the Basque Country, Bilbao, Spain.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D011253:Pregnancy in Adolescence / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology*; D014481:United States