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Title: Early Childbearing and Later Economic Well-Being
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Hofferth, Sandra L.
Moore, Kristin Anderson
Early Childbearing and Later Economic Well-Being
American Sociological Review 44,5 (October 1979): 784-815.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2094528
Cohort(s): Young Women
Publisher: American Sociological Association
Keyword(s): Childbearing, Adolescent; Children; Educational Attainment; Family Size; First Birth; Husbands, Influence; Schooling; Simultaneity; Well-Being

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Using data from the NLS of Young Women on a subsample of those women who have borne a child by age 27, we find strong direct effects within a path analytic framework, such that later childbearers complete more education, have smaller families, and work fewer hours at age 27. The relationship with education is recursive among women having a first child by age l8, but simultaneous among later childbearers. Effects of age at first birth on economic well-being at 27 are indirect. Lower education is related to reduced earnings among women and among other household members (usually the husband). Since resources must be divided among more family members, the incidence of poverty is greater. For women who are at least l9 when they have their first birth, the timing of that birth is important to later well-being primarily because of the smaller families and increased work experience to those who postpone their first birth into the twenties. Having an early first birth was found to be less detrimental to the later economic well-being of black women than white women.
Bibliography Citation
Hofferth, Sandra L. and Kristin Anderson Moore. "Early Childbearing and Later Economic Well-Being." American Sociological Review 44,5 (October 1979): 784-815.