Teenage childbearing and long-term socioeconomic consequences: A case study in Sweden

Context: Whether long-term socioeconomic problems experienced by many teena ge mothers are a reflection of preexisting disadvantage or are consequences of teenage motherhood per se remains unclear. Methods: National data on all women born in Sweden from 1941 to 1970 who we re younger than age 30 when they first gave birth (N=888,044) were analyzed . The outcome measures, assessed during adulthood, were employment status, socioeconomic status, educational attainment, single motherhood, family siz e, receipt of disability pension and dependence on welfare. Multiple logist ic regression techniques were used to adjust for maternal birth cohort and for socioeconomic background of the woman's family. Results: Compared with Swedish women who first gave birth at ages 20-24, th ose who were teenage mothers had significantly increased odds of each unfav orable socioeconomic outcome in later life, even after the data were adjust ed for family socioeconomic situation and maternal birth cohort. For exampl e, teenage motherhood was positively associated with low educational attain ment (odds ratios of 1.7-1.9, depending on the specific age during adolesce nce when the woman gave birth), with single living arrangements (odds ratio s, 1.5-2.3), with high parity (odds ratios, 2.6-6.0), with collecting a dis ability pension (odds ratios, 1.6-1.9) and with welfare dependency (odds ra tios, 1.9-2.6). These trends were usually linear, with the highest odds rat ios corresponding to women who had had their first child at the youngest ag es. Conclusions: A longitudinal analysis of record-linkage data from Sweden sup ports the view that childbearing during adolescence poses a risk for socioe conomic disadvantage in later life-even for adolescents from relatively com fortable backgrounds and for those who studied beyond elementary school.