Intergenerational consequences of teenage motherhood: a sequential mediation analysis of educational pathways in the Philippines
Date
2026-01-05
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
This study examines the long-term intergenerational effects of teenage motherhood in the Philippines by analyzing how teenage motherhood influences their children’s adult fertility and occupational outcomes. Using data from the 2018 Longitudinal Study of Ageing and Health in the Philippines (LSAHP), the analysis applies inverse odds ratio weighting (IORW) to estimate total, direct, and sequentially mediated effects through maternal and child educational attainment. Results show that children of teenage mothers have more than twice as many children as those of non-teenage mothers, with education-mediated pathways explaining 31.7% of this association. For occupational outcomes, children of teenage mothers are 36% less likely to enter white-collar jobs, and this disadvantage is transmitted almost entirely through maternal and child education. Unlike the fertility results, the occupational outcome models retain a statistically insignificant direct effect, indicating that education is the primary contributor to better occupational skills among children of teen mothers. By identifying a sequential intergenerational pathway operating primarily through educational attainment, the study provides new evidence from a high-adolescent-fertility context and highlights the importance of supporting educational continuity for young mothers and their children to reduce occupational disadvantage and narrow intergenerational inequality.
Description
Keywords
intergenerational transmission, educational attainment, fertility behavior, occupational outcomes, sequential mediation analysis, inverse odds ratio weighting, teenage motherhood