The Costs of Adolescent Childbearing: Evidence from Chile, Barbados, Guatemala, and Mexico

Abstract

Findings from Chile, Barbados, Guatemala, and Mexico are reviewed in this article to shed light on the consequences of adolescent childbearing for mothers' economic and social opportunities and the well-being of their first-born children. The studies include retrospective information and a comparison group of adult childbearers to account for the effects of background factors (poverty) and the timing of observations. The findings show that early childbearing is associated with negative economic rather than social effects, occurring for poor rather than for all mothers. Among the poor, adolescent childbearing is associated with lower monthly earnings for mothers and lower child nutritional status. Also, among this group of women only, improvements in the child's well-being are associated with mother's education and her contribution to household income. These findings suggest that social policy that expands the educational and income-earning opportunities of poor women could help to contain the intergenerational poverty associated with early childbearing among the poor.