Childhood Poverty, Early Motherhood and Adult Social Exclusion

(1999) - John Hobcraft, Kathleen Kiernan

Journal: Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion
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Tags:: #paper #NCDS #Exclusion #Unemployment #Income
Cite Key:: [@hobcraftChildhoodPovertyEarly1999]

Abstract

Childhood poverty and early parenthood are both high on the political agenda. The key new issue addressed in this research is the relative importance of childhood poverty and of early motherhood as correlates of outcomes later in life. How far are the ‘effects’ of early motherhood on later outcomes due to childhood precursors, especially experience of childhood poverty? If there are powerful associations of both childhood poverty and early parenthood with later adult outcomes, there are a number of subsidiary questions relating to the magnitude of these associations, the particular threshold levels of childhood poverty that prove most critical, and whether it is, as often assumed, only teenage mothers who are subsequently disadvantaged, or also those who have their first birth in their early twenties? The source of data for this study is the National Child Development Study.

Notes

“Becoming a mother before age 23 and any experience of childhood poverty are clear dividing points in differentiating risks of adverse outcomes in later adulthood” (Hobcraft and Kiernan, 1999, p. 4)