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Jim Raymo (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

31 October 2011 @ 12:45

 

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Date:
31 October 2011
Time:
12:45
Event Category:

Educational Differences in Early Childbearing: A Cross-national Comparative Study

Abstract: This cross-national comparative study describes relationships between women’s socioeconomic status and early age at first childbirth and seeks to lay an empirical foundation for further research on the ways in which these relationships are shaped by national context.  To this end, we describe differences in early childbearing with respect to both respondents’ and parents’ education in fourteen countries (Austria, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Hungary, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Spain, the U.K, and the U.S.). We also assess the extent to which those differences have changed across cohorts. We find that a negative educational gradient in early childbearing is common across all ten countries, whereas an increasing concentration of early childbearing among women with less education across cohorts is observed in only three of the fourteen countries. Differences are similar but less pronounced when we use mother’s education to measure socioeconomic status.  Consistent with earlier studies, we find evidence of growing educational differences in the U.S. and also find growing differences in Japan and the U.K.  Contrary to predictions associated with the idea of “diverging destinies,” we find that that educational differences have remained unchanged in most countries and have actually declined in three countries. We find no evidence that cross-national variation in educational differences reflects differences in policies supporting mothers. We discuss possible explanations for these observed patterns.