Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Race And Ethnic Variation In The Schooling Consequences Of Female Adolescent Sexual Activity, Renata Forste, Marta Tienda

Faculty Publications

Data from the National Survey of Families and Households are used to examine the influence of adolescent childbearing and marriage on the likelihood of high school completion among a cohort of women aged 20 to 29 in 1987. Use of event history techniques reveals striking differences by ethnicity. While the effect of teen marriage on school completion was significant only for whites, adolescent childbearing had much stronger deleterious effects for Latinas than for white or especially black teens. Attitudinal data are presented in an effort to explain these differences.