The name is absent

Maynard 1997). Cross sectional studies tend to find larger estimates for the potential
adverse effects of early motherhood on various adult outcomes than sibling/twin data and
longitudinal data which can better control for confounding factors. However a common
theme in more recent work appears to be that early motherhood may not itself cause the
associated problems. Work by Ermisch and Pevalin (2003b) on the British birth cohort
of 1970 (using data on miscarriages to identify the direction of causality) suggests that a
teen birth had little independent effect on a woman’s qualifications, employment or
earnings when she is 30 years old. Work on sisters for the US (Geronimus and
Korenman 1992) and twins for the UK (Hawkes 2003) also suggest that early
motherhood is strongly associated with poor family background. The effects of entering
motherhood early on household income and educational attainment are much smaller.
However Ermisch and Pevalin (2003b) do find that the lower employment and
educational attainment of any partner present when a teen mother is 30 can be attributed
to an adverse outcome in the ‘marriage’ market, and a companion paper to Ermisch and
Pevalin (2003b) finds another independent effect of early motherhood on a woman’s
mental health (Futing Liao 2003). Early entry to motherhood maybe little more than a
signal of a disadvantaged family background which is then the real driver in the
subsequently observed poorer adult outcomes for the mother, and consequently her
children. On the other hand, early motherhood, in the early twenties as well as the teens,
may compound pre-existing disadvantages, setting these families apart from those where
childbearing has not started until the late twenties or beyond.

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