The impact of teenage childbearing on educational outcomes

Based on the Survey on Social and Biological Reproduction of the Uruguayan Population: an approximation to gender and generations carried out by the Gender and Generations project in 2004, we study the e¤ect of teenage childbearing on educational outcomes of mothers. The predicted results show that women in the sample present a 54% probability of completing 9 or more years of formal education, and only 23% for 12 or more years. Taking mother’s education as a proxy of parental atmosphere, we …nd that daughters of those teenage mothers that completed secondary education have 38% more probability of completing 9 or more years of education, and 110% for 12 or more years. These …gures grow to 50% and 220%, respectively, in the case of mothers with university level. At the same time, early motherhood of the women’s mother and the number of siblings reduces the probability of educational achievements, as these variables indicate a low socioeconomic status of the household. As regards to the early motherhood of the women in the sample, it reduces the probability of completing 9 or more years of education by approximately 40%, and almost 100% in the case of 12 or more years.