Helen E. Petracchi, PhD, University of Pittsburgh, Larry E. Davis, PhD, University of Pittsburgh, and Rafael J. Engel, PhD, University of Pittsburgh.
Purpose: This study examines the question: What are the educational and labor force participation implications of having become an African American teen father? This study posits adolescent parenting as a major life event occurring out of the normative sequence for which our institutions of education, the family, and the labor markets have been designed. Propelled into an adult role, teen parenting impedes established norms for transition to that role. Many African American adolescents believe fatherhood will have a positive impact on their lives allowing them to achieve adulthood (Majors and Billson, 1992). However, it appears that young African American fathers are more likely to actually reduce their educational and employment expectations following the birth of their first child. While educational attainment performs a pivotal function in the achievement of economic self-sufficiency over the course of one's life, no existing literature examines the lasting impact of adolescent fatherhood throughout a young man's life. Methods: This study drew a sample from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) for each of the survey years1979-2003, n = 1613. The NLSY is one of the best available nationally representative sources of information on male fertility, household composition, schooling, employment, family background, and work. Constituting a balanced panel of 6,400 young men (aged 14-21 in 1979), with an over sampling of African Americans, NLSY respondents have been re-interviewed annually with approximately 93 percent still participating. In 2003 NLSY-79 respondents were 38 - 45 years of age, providing valuable information about the academic and work life-course of young fathers. This study used a combination of multivariate techniques (OLS and logistic regression as well as structural equation modeling) to examine the relationship between work, educational attainment, socioeconomic background variables, and the age when young African American respondents first became fathers.
Results: Results suggest the younger the age at which an African American male first becomes a father the greater the negative relationship with his recipiency of a high school diploma (or GED) and, ultimately, years of completed schooling by age 45. Controlling for the socio-demographic background characteristics as well as a test score measure of academic ability and work and education expectations, the younger the age at which a male becomes a father, the greater his educational truncation with the youngest fathers loosing almost a year (-.696) of completed schooling when compared with their non-father counterparts. Systematic differences were also found in the likelihood of completing high school when fathers were compared to non-fathers. A positive and statistically significant relationship also exists between the African American father's educational completion and labor force participation. Implications: African Americans are most vulnerable to education and work requirements in our economy. The results of this study suggest African American adolescent fathers experience long-term and short term needs. Academic support for young fathers as they complete high school is a major implication of this study, with social support provided for them as they learn the fathering role. Work support services as they transition from school to the labor force are also important.
