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Data from a large prospective nationwide study of high school boys and girls were analyzed to document the long- and short-term impact of adolescent childbearing on their future educational occupational marital and childbearing lives. 3 follow-up studies were conducted results of which indicate that early childbearing appears to be a direct cause of truncated schooling independent of other influences. Adolescent parents are much more likely than their classmates to hold low-prestige jobs apparently due to their relatively low educational attainment. Through age 29 the adolescent parents also have more children than their classmates who postponed childbearing until their 20s. For all of these reasons those who give birth as teenagers are more likely than their classmates by age 29 to have experienced unstable marriages. All of the differences between adolescent parents are greater for the young mothers than for the young fathers. These differences between teenage parents and their classmates diminish but remain when socioeconomic status race and academic achievement aptitude and expectations are controlled. Because they have longer reproductive careers adolescent childbearers have more children than their classmates coming from similar backgrounds and posessing similar academic abilities.
Card et al. (Thu,) studied this question.