Early Schooling and Childbearing Experiences: Implications for Postsecondary School Attendance

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Abstract
The purpose of this article is to examine whether the sequence of dropping out of high school and/or becoming an adolescent mother is important. To do this it is necessary to group women according to the order of those experiences, and then to test whether group membership varies by family background and individual factors. Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY; Center for Human Resource Research,1987) demonstrate that there are significant differences between groups: Women from the most disadvantaged backgrounds are the most likely to drop out of school and/or to become teen mothers. Adolescent mothers who graduated from high school most resembled women who graduated and delayed childbearing, but were less likely to attend college than the latter.

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