THE EFFECTS OF TEENAGE AND ILLEGITIMATE BIRTHS

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In this competing continuation application, we propose to build on our previous empirical investigations of the causal effects of teenage childbearing in the U.S., undertaking the following expanded and new specific aims: 1. Estimate the effect of the failure to delay childbearing on the physiological, cognitive, socioemotional, and behavioral development of the children born to teenage women in the U.S. using the robust, non-parametric bounding statistical methods derived from the miscarriages-as-a-natural-experiment evaluation design developed in the initial funding period of this grant. 2. Expand on our initial research program to consider the effects of the failure to delay early childbearing on a set of maternal (and, more generally, parental) outcomes which the child development literature has argued are important inputs into the child's development. 3. Extend, and in some cases, replicate with new data, our initial analysis on the effects of early childbearing on maternal outcomes, measured at various stages of the teen mothers life cycles (i.e., at different ages of women who became teen mothers and of women in our comparison groups), using the same evaluation design developed during our initial funding period. 4. Further assess and test the validity of our miscarriages-as-a-natural- experiments evaluation design for identifying the causal effect of the failure of teen mothers to delay their childbearing. Our empirical analysis will make primary use of three different data sources: (i) the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79); (ii) data sets which comprise the National Maternal and Infant Health Survey (NMIHS); and (iii) Detailed Files of the U.S. Vital Statistics Natality (Live Birth) data, 1968-94.