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The Costs of Teenage Motherhood

It is no surprise that being a teenage mom is extra challenging, but young motherhood also appears to come with heavy consequences in terms of educational achievement and future salary potential.

New research by a Yale School of Public Health assistant professor examined a cohort of 1,000 pregnant teenage girls, some of whom gave birth, while others had pregnancies that ended in miscarriage. A statistical comparison of the two groups of teenagers found that several years after their pregnancies, the mothers were less likely to have finished high school and, on average, earned less money than the women who did not have children.

While the topic of teenage pregnancy and its associated consequences has been widely studied before, the conclusions reached by Jason M. Fletcher and a co–researcher contradict the conclusions of recent research on the same subject. That study suggested that there were actually economic and educational benefits associated with teenage motherhood.

“We didn’t think the other results were very intuitive,” Fletcher said of his study, which was published in the most recent issue of The Journal of Human Resources. The study was co–authored by Barbara L. Wolfe, a professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Fletcher’s study concluded that teenage moms were up to 10 percent less likely to receive a high school diploma and earned an annual income that was as much as $2,400 less than their peers in the study group. The teenage mothers were also more likely to receive public assistance. Fletcher said the disparity in education and income would likely be even more pronounced in a comparison between teenage mothers and those who did not become pregnant until later in life.

The debate over teenage motherhood and how to best prevent it was recently revived by Bristol Palin, daughter of vice presidential candidate and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who gave birth shortly after the 2008 election. The younger Palin has since warned other teenagers not to follow her example.

Fletcher said the findings add to a growing body of work on the topic and suggest anew that sexual education programs targeting teenage pregnancy can have far–reaching effects on a young woman’s prospects in life. Future studies on the topic of teenage pregnancy will look at how it affects the health choices of expecting mothers (such as smoking and drinking) and also at the potential educational and earnings consequences of teenage fatherhood.

~ Story by Michael Greenwood