Research Paper Working Papers of the ESRC Research Centre on Micro-Social Change 98-09

Mother's employment, lone motherhood and children's achievements as young adults

Authors

Publication date

01 Aug 1998

Abstract

The study finds that for children, mother's employment during their childhood is generally associated with favourable outcomes during young childhood: higher educational attainments, lower unemployment and a smaller chance of becoming a mother before a woman's 21st birthday. For the most part, this conclusion also applies to young people from lone parent families. The experience of life in a lone parent family tends to reduce the child's educational attainments and increase the chances that a young woman becomes a mother before their 21st birthday, but it has no effect on their unemployment when they enter the labour force. Finally, we find strong persistence across generations in early childbearing: daughters who were born when their mother was aged 21 or less are themselves more likely to become mothers before their 21st birthday.

Subjects

Lone Parents, Education, Labour Market, and Households

Notes

working paper

#495108