Childhood poverty, early motherhood and adult social exclusion

Childhood poverty and early parenthood are both high on the current politic al agenda. The key new issue that this research addresses is the relative i mportance of childhood poverty and of early motherhood as correlates of out comes later in life. How far are the 'effects' of early motherhood on later outcomes due to childhood precursors, especially experience of childhood p overty? Subsidiary questions relate to the magnitude of these associations, the particular levels of childhood poverty that prove most critical, and w hether, as often assumed, only teenage mothers are subsequently disadvantag ed, or are those who have their first birth in their early twenties similar ly disadvantaged? The source of data for this study is the National Child D evelopment Study. We examine outcomes at age 33 for several domains of adult social exclusion : welfare, socio-economic, physical health, emotional well-being and demogr aphic behaviour. We control for a wide range of childhood factors: poverty; social class of origin and of father; mother's and father's school leaving age; family structure; housing tenure; mother's and father's interest in e ducation; personality attributes; performance on educational tests; and con tact with the police by age 16. There are clear associations for the adult outcomes with age at first birth, even after controlling for childhood pove rty and the other childhood background factors. Moreover, we demonstrate th at the widest gulf in adult outcomes occurs for those who enter motherhood early (before age 23), though further reinforced by teenage motherhood for most adult outcomes. We also show that any experience of childhood poverty is clearly associated with adverse outcomes in adulthood, with reinforcemen t for higher levels of childhood poverty for a few outcomes.