The name is absent

the highly qualified are unlikely to have children before their mid twenties, the converse
is not true that the less qualified only have births early. Conditional on being a mother at
all, there does not seem to be great immediate economic differentials by age at first birth
among the minority postponing the first birth into the thirties. The only ‘outcome’
variable which continued to rise with age at motherhood up to the latest age group was
the mother’s propensity to be employed. Most other indicators peaked or plateaued
around age 30.

Early motherhood

In the analysis of the disadvantages surrounding early motherhood, the factors we treat as
antecedent (parents separating in childhood, ever having been in social care as child,
leaving school at the minimum age of 16 (or 15) and ethnic group) moderate the
association between early motherhood and all of these outcomes, helping statistically, to
account for it, but not for all of it. One might conclude from this result that the residual
economic disadvantages of early motherhood are not due to earlier disadvantages, but we
cannot reach this conclusion as we acknowledge that our measurement of antecedent
circumstances is limited, and the unexplained differences remaining by age at
motherhood may also reflect unmeasured prior factors as well as adverse consequences.

We have then introduced factors which may be either consequences, antecedents or joint
outcomes of other correlates of early motherhood - highest qualifications, country and
area of residence, long-term illness, the number of children born subsequently (and in
relevant models the presence of and characteristics of a partner). Other studies suggest

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