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Investigating the Life Situations and Development of Teenage Mothers’ Children: Evidence from the ECLS-B

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Abstract

The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort of 2001 represents a unique opportunity to examine the life situations of teenage mothers and their young children in a nationally representative sample. Descriptive and multivariate regression analyses compare teenage mothers and their children to older mothers and their children, examine variation among teenage mothers and their children, and estimate associations between household structures and mothers' work and school involvement at age 2 and children's health and development at age 4½. Results show that compared to children of mothers who never gave birth as teens, teenage mothers' children experience strong socioeconomic disadvantages, and their home environments have some greater risks. Their mothers' parenting behaviors are not rated as favorably, and many measures of their health and development at age 2 are compromised. However, many of these parenting and developmental disparities are explained by teenage mothers' low levels of current socioeconomic status. At least in some domains, teenage mothers' involvement in school and paid work is associated with more favorable child outcomes at age 4½, and living with a single mother and other adults predicts more negative outcomes. Many everyday experiences that are associated with disadvantaged outcomes are quite prevalent among teenage mothers' children, identifying useful targets for policy interventions. These findings suggest that effective social programs implemented in early life may have an opportunity to reduce the early developmental disadvantages of many children of teenage mothers.

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Notes

  1. Because of ECLS-B confidentiality restrictions, all unweighted Ns are rounded to the nearest 50.

  2. Cohen’s f 2 = (R 2Model 2  − R 2Model 1 )/(1 − R 2Model 2 ), where Model 1 excludes the teen childbearing measures and Model 2 adds them. The effect size cannot distinguish between the effects of the current and prior teen mother indicators.

  3. These cutoffs were calculated by dividing the desired effect size by 1.65 to convert it from the standard normal metric used in most effect size calculations to the logistic metric (Haddock et al. 1998).

  4. Odds ratios are calculated by exponentiating Table 2 logistic regression coefficients. Here, exp(−1.78) = 0.169.

  5. Because of small Ns when dividing Latina teen mothers into foreign- and U.S.-born, we display results for Latinas overall and briefly note some differences between the two subgroups in the text.

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Acknowledgments

This research is based on work supported by grants from the Council on Research and Creative Work at the University of Colorado at Boulder and from the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Public Health Service (#1 APRPA006015-01-00).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty, Health and Society Program, Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado Boulder, 483 UCB, Boulder, CO, 80309-0483, USA

    Stefanie Mollborn

  2. Department of Social Sciences, University of Texas of the Permian Basin, 4901 East University Boulevard, Odessa, TX, 79762-0001, USA

    Jeff A. Dennis

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  1. Stefanie Mollborn
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  2. Jeff A. Dennis
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Correspondence to Stefanie Mollborn.

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Mollborn, S., Dennis, J.A. Investigating the Life Situations and Development of Teenage Mothers’ Children: Evidence from the ECLS-B. Popul Res Policy Rev 31, 31–66 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11113-011-9218-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11113-011-9218-1

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