Patterns of Later Life Education Among Teenage Mothers

Abstract

This article uses data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth to examine the phenomenon of later life education among women who first give birth as teenagers. The analysis first considers patterns of educational attainment through the middle 30s for all women, disaggregated by age at first birth. This allows for an examination of the amount of education received by teen mothers relative to women who delay giving birth until adulthood. The analysis also considers racial-ethnic differences in patterns of attainment. Next, the analysis is restricted to teen mothers and focuses on an examination of the composition of educational attainment according to the amount of time that has elapsed since the first birth. The findings suggest that later life education among teen mothers is an important and understudied phenomenon with implications for welfare reform and adult education policies.

Exploring New Life Course Patterns of Mother’s Continuing Secondary and College Education

“…Alternately, I also found that women who returned to school compared to those that did not but had similar educations at the time of first birth were not as select in their background characteristics as one might assume—a pattern also noted by Rich and Kim (1999). This finding suggests we likely need new data, including qualitative data, to yield better insights into how mothers who return to school differ from mothers of similar educational backgrounds that do not.…”

“…As for research pointing to an upward trend in mothers’ pursuit of high school or general equivalency degrees (GEDs), one older study found an upward trend in high school degree completion among low-income mothers (Brandon 1993) and there are a handful of studies which found that a large percentage of teen mothers that dropped out school returned to complete their degrees (Furstenberg et al 1987; Rich and Kim 1999). Taken together, these studies provide compelling evidence that there have been changes in the timing of the completion of women’s high school and college level educational attainment.…”

“…Given assumptions about the sequencing of schooling and motherhood and established lines of inquiry, there is only a very small body of work describing women’s post-childbearing schooling, and the majority of this work focused on young, largely economically disadvantaged women; particularly teen parents (Hofferth, Reid, and Mott 2001; Furstenberg, et al 1987; Mott and Marsiglio 1985; Rich and Kim 1999; Upchurch and McCarthy 1990). For example, Rich and Kim (1999) examined the post-childbearing patterns and characteristics of teen mothers using data from the NLSY79.…”

“…For example, Rich and Kim (1999) examined the post-childbearing patterns and characteristics of teen mothers using data from the NLSY79. They found that 15 years after giving birth, 40% of teenage mothers who had dropped out of school increased their education and about 20% of who had completed a high school degree or GED, increased their education.…”

Unmarried Mothers' Postnatal School Enrollment: The Role and Intersection of Demographic and Socioeconomic Characteristics

“…Scholarship examining mothers who return to school supports the notion that formal education extends into parenthood for a substantial minority of mothers (Astone, Schoen, Ensminger, & Rother, 2000; Bradburn, Moen, & Dempster-McClain, 1995; Rich & Kim, 1999). Among married mothers aged 25–50 years old living in upstate New York in 1956 (n = 294), Bradburn and colleagues (1995) found that 22% had returned to school by 1986.…”