NEW YORK, March 31 (UPI) -- Teen fatherhood lowers the odds a young man will graduate from high school but increases his odds of employment or joining the military, U.S. researchers say.
Jason Fletcher of Yale University School of Public Health and Columbia University and Barbara Wolfe of the La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison examined data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health of seventh to 12th graders in the United States beginning in 1994-1995.
The study involved 362 men younger than 18 years, 9 nine months. The study compared young men whose partners experienced a pregnancy but suffered a miscarriage, with those whose partners gave birth.
Sixty-four percent received a high school diploma and 16 percent received a GED. Those who became fathers were 15 percentage points less likely to graduate but increased their chances of receiving a GED by 11 percentage points, the study says.
Those who became fathers increased their chance of full-time employment by 6 percentage points and military employment by 2 percentage points. Additionally, 26 percent of the teen fathers were married, while 62 percent lived with their partner, the researchers say.
The study is published online in the journal Economic Inquiry.
