A variety of methodological strategies are employed to reduce bias, including regression, fixed effects, instrumental variables, and propensity score methods. Efforts to reduce selection bias-that is, confounding factors that influence both early fertility and attainment-are the focal concern in such analyses. Scholars have attempted to resolve this debate by isolating the causal effect of teen childbearing. Others have suggested that the responsibilities of motherhood could even serve as a positive turning point in the lives of troubled youth (Brubaker and Wright 2006 Edin and Kefalas 2005). Consequences may be negligible, for instance, if teen mothers have bleak socioeconomic prospects prior to childbearing (Furstenberg 2003 Geronimus 1997 Geronimus and Korenman 1992). Scholars have since questioned whether these studies account for preexisting factors that affect women’s fertility decisions and attainment. Early evidence that teen childbearing substantially reduced educational attainment (Card and Wise 1978 Hayes 1987 Mott and Marsiglio 1985) implied that the costs of motherhood force women to sacrifice investments in their own education and training (Becker 1981 Manlove 1998). political issue more than 40 years ago, researchers continue to dispute the socioeconomic consequences of teenage pregnancy and childbearing. Teenage childbearing, Teenage pregnancy, Effect heterogeneity, Socioeconomic attainment Introduction Further analyses suggest that teen pregnancy is particularly harmful for those with the brightest socioeconomic prospects and who are least prepared for the transition to motherhood. More striking, however, is that effects on college completion and early earnings vary considerably and are most pronounced among those least likely to experience an early pregnancy. Analyses of the Child and Young Adult Cohorts of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth ( N = 3,661) confirm that teen pregnancy has negative effects on most women’s attainment and earnings. We reconcile this ongoing debate by drawing on two heuristics: (1) each methodological strategy emphasizes different women in estimation procedures, and (2) the effects of teenage fertility likely vary in the population. Scholars argue that there are reasons to predict negative, trivial, or even positive effects, and different methodological approaches provide some support for each perspective. Although teenage mothers have lower educational attainment and earnings than women who delay fertility, causal interpretations of this relationship remain controversial.
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