Early Parenthood and Educational Outcomes. Are There Differences Between Young Teenage Mothers and Fathers?

ABSTRACT A broad literature has established the negative effects of teen motherhood on educational outcomes. Yet relatively little is known about the educational effects of becoming a teen father. Using siblings fixed effects on population‐level data from Chile I compare educational outcomes of young teen‐mothers and teen‐fathers and provide new evidence on potential heterogeneous effects. My results show early parenthood has a negative association with most educational outcomes, with worse effects for young teen‐mothers than for teen‐fathers and for individuals from disadvantaged socio‐economic backgrounds. I conclude that appropriate support could help to reduce gender inequalities in the effects of early parenthood.