Cumulative Inequality in Teen Parents and Job Achievements: Mediation Effect of Educational Achievement

Background and Purpose: The United States continues to have the highest rates of teenage pregnancy and birth among developed countries. In 2014, there were 24.2 births for every 1,000 females aged 15-19, and a total of 249,078 babies were born to women aged 15-19 years. Many studies have consistently shown associations between teenage parenting and negative outcomes. However, few studies have focused on the cumulative inequality of job achievements such as working weeks and total income among teen parents. Also, the dynamic relationship between trajectories of educational achievement and job achievement have not fully been explained. Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore cumulative disparities in educational and job achievements of teen parents during their early adulthood. Furthermore, this study identifies the role of educational level on the job achievements.

Methods: This study used data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97), which consists of a nationally representative sample of American youths who were born between 1980-84 (N = 8984). Each respondent was identified as a teen parent if he/she had more than one biological children born before he/she was 20 years old. A number of weeks the respondent worked at any job was measured by using data from wave 2004, 2008, and 2013. Total income respondents received from wages, salary, commissions, or tips from all jobs was measured by using data from wave 2005, 2009, and 2013. Education level was measured as the highest grade completed, and data from wave 2004, 2008, and 2011 were used. Latent growth curve model examined whether there were cumulative disparities in educational and job achievements between non-teen parents and teen parents. Latent growth mediation model explored the longitudinal mediation effect of education on the relationship between being a teen parent and job achievements.

Results: Being a teen parent decreased an intercept of educational achievement (B=-0.168, p<.001), a slope of educational achievement (B=-0.060, p<.001), an intercept of working weeks (B=-0.138, p<.001), an intercept of total income (B=-0.158, p<.001) and a slope of total income (B=-0.081, p<.01). In addition, being a teen parent directly decreased the intercept of working weeks and the intercept of total income, but also indirectly through the intercept of education. However, being a teen parent did not directly decrease the slopes of working weeks and total income, but indirectly decreased them through the intercept of education and the slope of education.

Conclusions and Implications: This study demonstrated that teen parents in the U.S. experienced cumulative inequality in terms of educational achievement, working weeks, and total income during their 20s. This study also shed light on the importance of educational achievement of teen parents. These results suggest that interventions for teen parents should include support programs for pursuing educational achievement. Not only helping teen parents not to drop out of high school but also encouraging teen parents to achieve higher education during their 20s are important for them to achieve better job achievements.