Young Motherhood and Child Outcomes

The opinions, comments and/or analysis expressed in this document are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs or the Australian Government Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, and cannot be taken in any way as expressions of Government policy. This paper uses unit record data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) Survey. The LSAC Project was initiated and is funded by the Australian government Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) and is managed by the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS). The findings and views reported in this paper, however, are those of the author and should not be attributed to either FaHCSIA or AIFS. There is considerable evidence that childbearing at a young age is associated with poorer outcomes for both mother and child. However, international research suggests that much of this association is not causal – children born to young mothers might still have had poor outcomes even if their mother had delayed their childbearing. Data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) shows that children aged 4-5 years whose mothers were under 25 when they were born have distinctly lower levels of functioning than those with older mothers. Census data on 16-18 year olds who are still living with their mother show that this disadvantage carries through to education and labour market outcomes. Those born when their mother was in her teens are much less likely to be still in school. We cannot, however, assume that all these differences are directly caused by being born to a young parent. It is quite possible that such associations could arise because of the different characteristics of the mothers (and fathers) who have their children when young. Testing for a causal relationship is important in formulating policy responses to these issues. If young motherhood causes negative outcomes for either the mother or child then this provides support for policies to discourage early childbearing. If, on the other hand, this association arises because of underlying socioeconomic disadvantage that influences both young fertility and later outcomes, then such fertility interventions will have no impact on later outcomes. Evidence from other countries is mixed. A recent US survey concluded that being born to a teen mother does not have an impact upon the school test scores of offspring, …