Early childbearing, high school completion, and college enrollment: Evidence from 1980 high school sophomores

Abstract

This paper analyzes the effect of teenage childbearing on the high school completion and college enrollment of young black and white women in the 1980s using data from the sophomore cohort of High School and Beyond. Results from binary logit models reveal that having a first birth before age 18 has a negative and significant impact on the likelihood of completing a regular high school diploma, and the magnitude of the effect is larger for white women than for black women. Having a first birth before age 18 has a positive and significant effect on the probability of completing a GED for white women but not for black women. For women of both races, the effect of early childbearing on four-year college enrollment is negative and significant. It is not only having a first birth before age 18 but early childbearing more generally that impedes young women's educational attainment.