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Kids Having Kids: Economic and Social Consequences of Teen Pregnancy Workshop on Tackling Adolescent Reproductive Health World Bank. Rebecca A. Maynard, Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania December 1, 2009. 3-Part Agenda. Brief overview of the Kids Having Kids project
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Kids Having Kids: Economic and Social Consequences of Teen PregnancyWorkshop on Tackling Adolescent Reproductive HealthWorld Bank Rebecca A. Maynard, Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania December 1, 2009
3-Part Agenda Brief overview of the Kids Having Kids project Review of the methodology Summary of findings
The Kids Having Kids Initiative • Rationale • High and rising rates of teenage pregnancy • Increasing proportions of pregnant teens keeping and raising babies • Most babies reared by single mothers • Most babies reared in poverty • Goal • Document the consequences of kids having kids • Estimate the costs of teenage childbearing
Strong Indicators of High Costs • Single parent households • Welfare dependence • Poverty • Low school completion rates • Child abuse and neglect • Poor child outcomes
Robin Hood Foundation Initiative University of Chicago’s Harris School Nationally prominent scholars Research and policy advisors Cost analysis overlay First edition 1997 Second edition 2007
Call to Action: Births per 1000 Pre 1992guttmacher.org/pubs/2006/09/12/USTPstats.p
Eight-Part Study • Consequences for Teenage Mothers • Consequences for Fathers of Children Born to Teenage Mothers • Consequences for Children • Social and psychological • Abuse and neglect • Criminal activity • Adult earnings • Consequences for Taxpayers and Society • Evidence of Effective Prevention Strategies
Aggregating “Costs” of Teenage Childbearing • Perspectives • Teenage mothers • Taxpayers • Society (distribution neutral) • Assigning value/cost to some consequences • E.g., incarceration spells; administrative costs of welfare; foster care; education of children • Aggregating over families • Accounting for compositional effects and cohort size • Steady-state accounting • 5% annual discount
Teen Parents Gain Some (Average per Year Over 15 Years) • Productivity • Mother • Father • Children • Child Support • Public Assistance • Cash/near cash • Criminal justice • Out-of-pocket health care costs
Costs to Taxpayers (Billions per Year) • Tax revenues • Mother • Father • Children • Public Assistance • Cash/near cash • Medical • Foster care • Special education • Criminal justice
Costs to Society (Billions per Year) • Productivity • Mother • Father • Children • Public service administration • Cash/near cash • Medical • Foster care • Special education • Criminal justice
Prevention Is Challenging: Review of Evidence • Sexual activity risk:100 • 21 studies/ 40 estimates • Similar results across four types of programs
Effectiveness of Prevention Programs • Pregnancy risk:100 • 24 studies/ 34 estimates • Small impacts • Significant only for multi-component youth development programs • 3 studies/6 estimates
Effectiveness of Prevention Programs • Pregnancy • :100 • 13 studies/ 25 estimates • Small average impacts • Impacts distributed across various program models
Implications • There are real costs of teenage childbearing • Borne by taxpayers and society, not the teens • Solutions are not obvious • Health and sex ed seems necessary, but not sufficient • Social norms seem to play an important role • Consider testing more differentiated interventions