Social Disadvantage and Teenage Motherhood: A Cohort Perspective

In 1968 Campbell stated that: 'The girl who has an illegitimate child at the age of 16 suddenly has 90% of her life’s script written for her. She will probably drop out of school…, not be able to find a steady job…; she may feel impelled to marry someone she might not have otherwise chosen. Her life choices are few, and most of them are bad (1968: 238). '

These negative consequences reported by Campbell continue to be found in many crosssectional studies in the US, Europe and the UK (for discussion see Berthoud and Robson 2001; SEU 1999; Luker 1996; Furstenberg 1987).

However, with advances in statistical modelling methods and the availability of longitudinal data, often of large scale and at the national level, researchers in the US and UK have been able to control for the difference in young mothers’ backgrounds. All of these studies have led to significant improvement in the methodology for studying teenage motherhood and pave the way for continued efforts in this area. On balance their results suggest that there are negative consequences associated with teenage motherhood, but these are much smaller than previously thought and can be moderated through social and personal support. Once we control for the selection effects of teenage motherhood it is suggested that teenage motherhood is a consequence, not just a cause, of social disadvantage.

In Australia Bradbury (2006) has attempted to control for the selection effect of motherhood on subsequent outcomes by using women who miscarriage as a comparison group. His findings suggest that teenage motherhood has no negative impact on education, labour market activity, income or location. In order to explore this issue further this paper uses a propensity score matching (PSM) technique on data from HILDA waves 1 through 5. This technique allows matching of women who have a teenage birth with those who do not based on variables observed prior to childbearing, thus separating out the effect of motherhood on subsequent life events such as training, relationship formation and fertility.