The effects of teenaged motherhood and maternal age on offspring intelligence

Abstract

Causal models of the effects of maternal age on offspring intelligence were generated using three large data sets. The direct and indirect effects of two components of maternal age, teenage motherhood and linear maternal age, were investigated separately for white and black children. The intervening variables investigated as routes of indirect effect were family structure, parental education, parental employment, family income, and family size. The findings indicate that there are no direct effects of teenage maternity on offspring intelligence, and that the observed negative relationship is primarily attributable to parental education. In contrast, the overall effect of maternal age, while very small and positive, is primarily direct, that is, not mediated by any of the social or economic conditions included in the model. The consistency of these findings and the impact on children's intelligence of the other variables included in the model are demonstrated and discussed.