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Teenage mothers unaffected in jobs

Teen-age pregnancy does not significantly affect a woman's educational attainment and employment in the long term, although she is more likely to live in poverty with an unemployed partner, a new study has found. The findings of the research, funded by the Department of Health and carried out by a team at the Institute of Social and Economic Research at Essex University, conflict with previous studies and the generally held view that teenage pregnancy affects a woman's career prospects because it cuts short her education.

The findings of the research, funded by the Department of Health and carried out by a team at the Institute of Social and Economic Research at Essex University, conflict with previous studies and the generally held view that teenage pregnancy affects a woman's career prospects because it cuts short her education.

The report, Does a teen birth have longer-term impacts on the mother? Evidence from the 1970 British Cohort Study, by John Ermisch and David Pevalin, said it was usually difficult to measure the possible long-term effects of teenage motherhood because it is not possible to know what the mother would have done if she had not had a child so young.

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