Long-term consequences of adolescent fertility: The Colombian case

Abstract

BACKGROUNDEstimating the long-term effects of adolescent motherhood is challenging for all developing countries, including Colombia, where this rate has been steadily increasing for 24 years, despite the reduction in the overall fertility rate. We propose a replicable methodology by applying a pseudo panel that evaluates the consequences of adolescent motherhood on outcomes previously neglected in the literature, such as job quality, marriage instability, partner's job class, presence of physical abuse by current partner, and children's health. OBJECTIVETo examine how adolescent mothers compare with non-adolescent mothers in outcomes not previously studied, such as job quality, marriage instability, partner's job class, if respondent has been physically abused by current partner, and health outcomes for their children. METHODSWe built a pseudo panel using four Demographic and Health Surveys (1995-2010) and compared the effects of older adolescent childbearing (ages 18-19) with those of women who postponed motherhood for just a couple of years (ages 20-21), exploiting the natural difference between adolescents and young adults who become mothers. RESULTSThe results revealed younger mothers as well as their partners hold lower-class jobs, suffer higher rates of domestic violence at the hands of their partners, and have a higher share of deceased children.

Adolescent parenthood associated with adverse socio‐economic outcomes at age 30 years in women and men of the Pelotas, Brazil: 1982 Birth Cohort Study

“…11 In Latin America, the potential impact of adolescent motherhood on socio-economic outcomes later in life has been investigated previously in cross-sectional but not prospective studies. 18,[20][21][22][23] A cross-sectional survey conducted in Mexico, 21 including adults aged between 25 and 64 years, reported adverse effects of adolescent maternity on education in both short-term and long-term analysis models, as well as on household income, consistent with our findings. However, when making inferences regarding the causal effects of adolescent parenting, the strong possibility of potential confounding by factors that make adolescents susceptible to early sexual behaviours and pregnancy needs to be considered.…”

“…In longitudinal studies conducted in South Africa, adolescent parenthood is clearly associated with poorer educational outcomes in early adulthood. [15][16][17] The evidence from Latin American countries is mainly from cross-sectional studies in women, [18][19][20][21][22][23] whereas, to our knowledge, no study has examined the potential socio-economic consequences of adolescent paternity in this setting.…”

The State of Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health

“…The adolescent birth rate differs greatly by household wealth (Figure 8): the rate in the lowest wealth quintile is, on average, 4.5 times larger than that in the highest wealth quintile [32]. Early childbearing in the most disadvantaged groups further increases their vulnerabilities over the life course [44,45], reinforcing social and economic inequalities.…”

Karakteristik Pranatal yang Berhubungan Dengan Balita Stunting Usia 2-3 Tahun

“…Jumlah kehamilan remaja adalah 10% dari total kelahiran di seluruh dunia, 15% dari beban secara global penyakit akibat kondisi kesehatan ibu yang buruk dan 13% dari kematian ibu. Fertilitas remaja merupakan isu penting dari segi kesehatan dan sosial karena berhubungan dengan tingkat kesakitan serta kematian ibu dan anak (Urdinola & Ospino, 2015;Winkleman & Adams, 2017) Usia reproduksi sehat bagi seorang wanita untuk melahirkan antara usia 20-35 tahun. Pada masa ini kualitas kesuburan wanita sangat baik sehingga aman untuk proses pembentukan janin.…”