The Timing of a First Birth and High School Completion

Dados Bibliográficos

ID5620101
AutoresDawn M Upchurch (0000-0003-1333-9348), James Mccarthy (0000-0003-2878-1921)
Ano1990
Volume55
Fascículo2
Páginas224
Data de publicação1990-04-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoAmerican Sociological Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0003-1224 • E-ISSN: 1939-8271
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/2095628
OpenAlexW1978173349
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas90
Referências citadas15

The relationship between the timing of a 1st birth and high school completion among women is examined using data from the US National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Employing event-history techniques we find that a 1st birth influences eventual high school graduation but not in the way previous studies have suggested. Using a modified status attainment model incorporating a life-course perspective we find that having a baby does not predict dropping out of a high school. Women who have a baby while still enrolled in school and remain in school are just as likely to graduate as women who do not. Among high school dropouts however a birth reduces the chances of eventual graduation. Whites were more likely to graduate as their 1st event followed by Blacks and Hispanics. Black women were more likely to have a baby while enrolled in school than either Hispanics or Whites. Among dropouts all groups are more likely to have a baby than to graduate. For those who had a baby and dropped out the order of the events made no difference on the graduation probability. The timing of a birth in schooling also had little impact on the probability of eventual graduation. Institutional and societal changes may have weakened or changed the relationship between adolescent childbearing and school-leaving in recent years

Developmental psychology · Mathematics education · Birth, Development, and Health · Family Dynamics and Relationships · Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies · Psychology