| Jennifer Manlove
NCES
Breaking the Cycle of Disadvantage: Ties Between Educational Attainments, Dropping Out, and Teenage Motherhood
FINAL REPORT:
This paper identifies the family and school as two social institutions that are central socializing forces in the early life-course, which influence teenagers' educational attainments and their risk of dropping out, as well as their likelihood of becoming teenage mothers. Using contemporary longitudinal data, the paper identifies important antecedents of teenage childbearing and thus illuminates possible protective factors in the family and school that are associated with staying in school and delayed childbearing. Demographic perspectives on the family are combined with education research on social reproduction to identify school processes through which family disadvantage is associated with teenage motherhood in the United States. This study considers the roles of school labels, school behavior, and aspirations on teenage motherhood. Location in school structures may influence academic performance and aspirations, which are tied to early fertility experiences. An opportunity cost framework links academic achievement and aspirations to the timing of first birth.
This research specifically considers the influence dropping out of high school on teenage motherhood, and tests whether dropping out, or other measures of educational performance and involvement, have a similar influence on the timing of first birth for white, black, and Hispanic students. It builds on recent research using event history models to examine the relationship between educational attainment, dropping out, and the timing of motherhood (Upchurch and Mcarthy 1990). The analyses examine the temporal ordering of life events in order to model the influence of dropping out on teenage motherhood.
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