Consequences of Teenage Parenting

This article explores the consequences of teenage parenting in three different areas: educational attainment, subsequent fertility, labor force participation, job status, earnings, and satisfaction, and poverty and welfare status. The compiled research suggests that teen mothers are poorer, less likely to complete their education and to enter the labor force, and more likely to be on welfare and to have large numbers of children than adult mothers, even controlling for other variables like class and race. Fathers under the age of 20 are also less likely to finish high school, but as they are not as well-studied as teen mothers, less is known about their characteristics. Reports also indicate that the children of teenage parents are more likely to struggle in school. The article finds that overall teenage parents are more likely to be poorer and to divorce earlier than adult parents, but the study points out that certain characteristics like class and race do have an impact on who becomes a teen parent. It should also be noted that this article was published in 1992 and is therefore quite outdated.