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Consequences of Teen Parenthood for Teen Mothers and Fathers in Canada

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Abstract

Teen motherhood is associated with a variety of adverse consequences in prior literature, even after controlling for selection into teen motherhood. The experience of parenthood, however, is highly gendered, suggesting that the consequences of teenage parenthood might differ for teen mothers and teen fathers. This paper examines gender differences in the long-term human capital, health, and wellbeing consequences of teen parenthood in Canada. OLS and logistic regression models with inverse-probability of treatment weights were estimated using pooled data from the 2006, 2011, and 2017 Canadian General Social Surveys. Models estimate the approximate causal consequences of teen motherhood and fatherhood for measures reported between the ages of 30 and 49. We find that becoming a parent as a teen is similarly detrimental for both women and men in terms of high school completion, postsecondary attendance, personal income, self-reported health, and life satisfaction, even 10 to 35 years after becoming a teen parent. These results, however, should be interpreted with caution because they may be affected by the underreporting of children by men. The findings highlight the importance of considering both teen mothers and teen fathers in efforts to isolate the adverse effects of teen parenthood, and that in Canada, teen fathers face similar disadvantages as teen mothers in these outcomes in their early adulthood to midlife.

Resume

De nombreuses études montrent que la maternité précoce est associée à une multitude de conséquences négatives chez les adolescentes, même en tenant compte de l’effet de sélection. L’expérience de la parentalité se caractérise néanmoins par de grandes différences entre les sexes, laissant à penser qu’être parent précocement peut produire des effets distincts chez les pères et les mères adolescents. Dans cet article, nous étudions les différences de genre par rapport aux conséquences à long terme de la parentalité adolescente sur le capital humain, la santé et le bien-être au Canada. En nous fondant sur les données regroupées des Enquêtes sociales générales canadiennes (ESG) de 2006, 2011 et 2017, nous avons estimé des modèles de régression MCO et logistique pondérés par la probabilité inverse de traitement. Ces modèles permettent d’évaluer les conséquences causales approximatives de la maternité et de la paternité adolescentes pour tous les indicateurs rapportés entre 30 et 49 ans. Qu’il s'agisse de l’achèvement des études secondaires, de la poursuite des études postsecondaires, des revenus personnels, de la santé autodéclarée et de la satisfaction à l’égard de la vie, nos résultats montrent que devenir parent à l’adolescence est préjudiciable pour les hommes et les femmes de la même façon, même 10 à 35 ans après. Les hommes pouvant sous-déclarer leur paternité, ces résultats peuvent être faussés et doivent être interprétés avec prudence. Nos conclusions soulignent l’importance de considérer indistinctement les mères et les pères adolescents afin d’isoler les conséquences négatives propres à la parentalité précoce, et montrent qu’au Canada, les pères adolescents subissent les mêmes désavantages que les mères adolescentes pour tous ces indicateurs, du début jusqu’au milieu de la vie adulte.

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Data Availability

Data available through Statistic Canada.

Notes

  1. Following the advice from Austin and Stuart (2015) the model predicting teen parenthood used to create the propensity scores includes sex as a predictor. However, as an extra sensitivity test, we estimated the logistic regression predicting teen parenthood without sex, reconstructed the weights, and re-estimated all of the models. The results are consistent across weight specifications and are available by request.

  2. Self-rated health was also modeled using ordered logisitic regression and the results and conclusions remain the same. Only the OLS estimates are displayed for simplicity.

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  1. Department of Sociology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada

    Laura Wright

  2. Department of Sociology, St. Thomas More College, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada

    Sarah Knudson

  3. Department of Human Ecology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

    Matthew Johnson

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Wright, L., Knudson, S. & Johnson, M. Consequences of Teen Parenthood for Teen Mothers and Fathers in Canada. Can. Stud. Popul. 48, 441–468 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42650-021-00060-0

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