Bridging Disciplinary Boundaries (January 11 - 14, 2007)

Purpose: This study addresses two questions: (1) Among Hispanic/Latino men, do subsequent educational attainment and labor force participation differ by the age at which they first become a father? (2) What are the economic consequences of these differences in their middle aged years? Adolescent parenting is a major life event occurring out of the normative sequence for which educational settings and the labor market have been designed. Becoming a parent during the teenaged years propels the adolescent into an adult role, impeding established norms for transition to that role. Discussions about these transitions have focused on primarily on teenage mothers with less attention paid to studying fathers, and, in particular, there is little attention given to Hispanic/Latino men. There are no large sample studies available on these fathers or the implications of young fatherhood despite that the Hispanic population is the largest and fastest-growing major racial/ethnic group in the United States (Grieco and Cassidy, 2001) and since 1994, Hispanic teens have had the highest teen birth rate (Ventura, Mathews, and Hamilton, 2001). Methods: This study drew a sample from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) for each of the survey years from 1979 through 2003, n=1000. The NLSY is one of the best nationally representative sources of information on male fertility, household composition, schooling, employment, family background, and work currently available. The NLSY constitutes a balanced panel in which 6,400 young men (aged 14 to 21 years in 1979) were re-interviewed annually. Approximately 93 percent of survey participants have been interviewed each year. In 2003, NLSY-79 respondents were age 38 to 45. Moreover, the NLSY permits an expanded definition of “race” (including multiple categories of respondents from Hispanic and Latino backgrounds). Drawing from the larger status attainment tradition, 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, and socioeconomic background variables, and age when a man first became a father. Educational attainment is variously measured as “years of completed schooling" or “high school completion.” Work is measured as “average annual income” (in year 2003 dollars), “hourly wages” and, a dichotomous measure of “working” calculated quarterly. Results: Results suggest the age at which a Hispanic/Latino male first becomes a father has a negative relationship with his recipiency of a high school diploma (or GED) and, ultimately, years of schooling completes through at least age 45. A positive, statistically significant relationship exists between the Hispanic/Latino father's educational completion and labor force participation. Implications: Given the impact of age and educational attainment, academic support for young fathers is essential as they are also learning the fathering role. Work support services as they transition from school to the labor force are also important.