Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015 Oct;34(5):733-759.
doi: 10.1007/s11113-015-9363-z.

Family Resources in Two Generations and School Readiness among Children of Teen Parents

Paula Fomby  1 , Laurie James-Hawkins  2 , Stefanie Mollborn  2
Affiliations

Family Resources in Two Generations and School Readiness among Children of Teen Parents

Paula Fomby et al. Popul Res Policy Rev. 2015 Oct.

Abstract

Overall, children born to teen parents experience disadvantaged cognitive achievement at school entry compared to children born to older parents. However, within this population there is variation, with a significant fraction of teen parents' children acquiring adequate preparation for school entry during early childhood. We ask whether the family background of teen parents explains this variation. We use data on children born to teen mothers from three waves of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (N~700) to study the association of family background with children's standardized reading and mathematics achievement scores at kindergarten entry. When neither maternal grandparent has completed high school, children's scores on standardized assessments of math and reading achievement are one-quarter to one-third of a standard deviation lower compared to families where at least one grandparent finished high school. This association is net of teen mothers' own socioeconomic status in the year prior to children's school entry.

Keywords: cognitive achievement; early childhood; family background; teen parenthood.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Allison PD. Missing Data. Sage; Thousand Oaks, CA: 2002.
    1. Boissiere M, Knight JB, Sabot RH. Earnings, Schooling, Ability, and Cognitive Skills. American Economic Review. 1985;75(5):1016–1030.
    1. Brewster KL, Padavic I. No more kin care? Change in black mothers' reliance on relatives for child care, 1977-94. Gender & Society. 2002;16(4):546–563.
    1. Brooks-Gunn J, Duncan GJ. The effects of poverty on children. Future of Children. 1997;7(2):55–71. - PubMed
    1. Chan TW, Boliver V. The Grandparents Effect in Social Mobility: Evidence from British Birth Cohort Studies. American Sociological Review. 2013;78(4):662–678.

LinkOut - more resources