Study: Life after teenage motherhood

View the most recent version.

Teenage motherhood has generally been associated with negative and long-term socioeconomic consequences for women, but it does not necessarily condemn them to a life in low income, according to a new study.

The study, "Life after teenage motherhood," published today in Perspectives on Labour and Income, used the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics to examine the personal and long-term socioeconomic characteristics of women aged 30 to 39 who gave birth as teenagers.

Specifically, it compared women who were teen moms with those who were adult mothers on the basis of educational outcome, long-term labour force participation and low-income status.

Overall, teenage mothers in Canada had a lower probability than their adult counterparts of completing high school and postsecondary education, even after controlling for family background and other characteristics.

But the study also found that education may help counter the negative impact that being a teen mother had on labour force participation and low-income status.

Overall, women with similar education levels, regardless of when they had their first child, also had a similar likelihood of being in full-year, full-time employment.

Teen moms and adult mothers with less than high school education were both less likely to be working in a full-time job for the full year.

On the other hand, teenage mothers who completed postsecondary studies were actually more likely than their adult counterparts to work full time, full year.

The study found similar results for the probability of living in low income. One-fifth (21%) of families of women who were teenage mothers had adjusted income below Statistics Canada's low-income measure (LIM) compared with just 12% of adult mother families.

But education made a big difference. Teenage moms and adult mothers who both had less than high school were more likely to be living below the LIM than adult mothers with a high school diploma.

Likewise, women who were teenage mothers and adult mothers who had completed postsecondary studies were less likely to fall below the LIM.

The study suggested that other unobserved characteristics, such as family support, social network and a variety of other resources, psychological traits, and other factors may also influence socioeconomic outcomes.

Family background remains an influence even in the long run. Women whose mothers finished high school or postsecondary studies were five percentage points more likely to work full year, full time than women whose mothers had less than high school.

In 2004, there were 31,611 teenage pregnancies in Canada, almost half of which resulted in live births. These births to teenage girls represented 4.2% of total births.

Canada's birth rate among teenagers of 13.6 for every 1,000 teen women in 2004 remained far below the birth rate of 41.1 in the United States. However, it was still almost seven times higher than the rate in Sweden, which has one of the lowest teen birth rates of all developed countries.

About half of teenage mothers married in their teens, compared with only 8% of adult mothers. But only 20% of teenage mothers were married prior to the birth of their first child, compared with 72% of adult mothers. Teenage mothers were more likely to live in common-law relationships, but they were still more likely to separate or divorce. Furthermore, teenage mothers were almost three times more likely to report marrying more than once.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 3889.

The article "Life after teenage motherhood" is now available in the May 2008 online edition of Perspectives on Labour and Income, Vol. 9, no. 5 (75-001-XWE, free), from the Publications module of our website.

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this article, contact May Luong (613-951-6014; may.luong@statcan.gc.ca), Labour and Household Surveys Analysis Division.