TEENAGE CHILDBEARING AND HIGH-SCHOOL COMPLETION - ACCOUNTING FOR INDIVIDUAL HETEROGENEITY

Authors
Citation
N. Ahn, TEENAGE CHILDBEARING AND HIGH-SCHOOL COMPLETION - ACCOUNTING FOR INDIVIDUAL HETEROGENEITY, Family planning perspectives, 26(1), 1994, pp. 17-21
Citations number
18
Categorie Soggetti
Demografy,"Family Studies
ISSN journal
00147354
Volume
26
Issue
1
Year of publication
1994
Pages
17 - 21
Database
ISI
SICI code
0014-7354(1994)26:1<17:TCAHC->2.0.ZU;2-Y
Abstract
Estimates from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1979-1987) i ndicate that differences in high school completion rates between women who have a teenage birth and those who do not are affected by the bir th itself, family background characteristics and individual heterogene ity. Merely having a teenage birth leads to a 50% reduction in the lik elihood of high school completion, compared with not having a teenage birth. Individual heterogeneity accounts for a 42% reduction in the li kelihood of finishing high school among those who have a birth before age 17, and a 30% reduction among those who have a birth between ages 17 and 19, compared with those who do not have a teenage birth. Howeve r, individual heterogeneity accounts for less than 30% of the differen ce in the likelihood that black teenage mothers will complete school, compared with more than 50% among Hispanics and whites. Family backgro und variables, such as maternal education and parental marital stabili ty, also have positive effects on school completion.