The Impact of Teenage Childbearing on Educational Outcomes

Based on data from the “Survey of Biological and Social Reproduction of the Uruguayan Population: an approach from the perspective of gender and generations” of 2004, we studied the impact of teenage motherhood on the educational outcomes of women. The results confirm the endogeneity of teenage motherhood on educational achievement. The partial effect of completing 9 years of formal education is between –10 and –16.5 pp, while that of completing 12 or more years is between –8 and –14.7 pp, depending on the estimation method used (probit, bivariate probit or propensity score), showing the overestimation of the naive probit models. The results of the bivariate probit models with endogeneity show that the probability of completing 9 years of formal education is 57% and that for 12 years or more is 24%. With regard to household characteristics, the biggest impact on the probability of completing any of the achievements specified corresponds to the education of the mother (19 pp basic achievement, 30 pp school achievement).