Bearing young: early motherhood and human capital development
Date
2006-03
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Abstract
Early motherhood tends to reduce years of schooling, work experience and, hence, wages of young mothers. Previous researches show that early motherhood results in adverse socioeconomic consequences. Other studies also note that teen mothers come from rural areas, have little access to education, and live in poverty. In this research data from the 2002 Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Survey (YAFS) were used to analyze the effects of teenĀ· motherhood on human capital investment and labor force participation using the logit model. Results show that age at first birth is a significant factor in determining the young mother's decisions to invest in further education. In the case of labor force participation, younger mothers are likely to join the labor force than pursue further schooling. An implication is that the government should give greater importance to the education and employment of the youth to reduce the incidence of early child bearing, thereby preventing them from getting into socioeconomic hardships.
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Keywords
Human capital, Motherhood, Parenting, Human capital development, Family