Adult Outcomes of Teen Mothers across Birth Cohorts

Anne Driscoll, National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), CDC

This study analyzes the adult outcomes (education, single motherhood, poverty, employment, poverty among employed) of teen mothers across four five-year birth cohorts stretching from 1956 to 1975 who were teens from 1971 and 1994. It compares their outcomes across cohorts and to non-teen mothers within cohorts. Data were pooled from the 1995, 2002 and 2006-2010 NSFG. The sample of mothers was categorized by whether their first birth occurred in their teens and by their birth cohort. Adult outcomes among teen mothers were either stable across birth cohorts (education, employment) or worsened (single mother, poverty, working poor). Comparisons between teen and non-teen mothers within cohorts suggest that gaps between these two groups of mothers have widened over time, to the detriment of teen mothers. They have fallen behind in education and have become more likely to be single and poor than in the past and than non-teen mothers.