Maternal Age and Offspring's Educational Attainment

• Author: Stella Min,Samuel H. Fishman
• Date: 01 August 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12490
• Published date: 01 August 2018

S H. F University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill

S M Florida State University∗

Maternal Age and Offspring’s Educational

Attainment

Using data from the National Longitudinal Study

of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), the

current study examines which maternal age at

birth provides offspring with optimal opportu-

nities for higher educational attainment. The

results show that maternal age has a curvi-

linear relationship with offspring’s educational

attainment, that is, the offspring of younger

and older mothers are distinctly disadvantaged.

Maternal ages 31 through 40 are associated

with the highest offspring educational attain-

ment, suggesting that women who give birth in

their 30s have more favorable characteristics

than younger or older mothers. The analysis

demonstrates that—with the exception of early

teenage childbearing—the association between

maternal age and offspring’seducational attain-

ment likely reects selection patterns in fertility

timing, rather than direct within-family effectsof

maternal age on offspring’s educational attain-

ment. Thus, the results provide insufcient evi-

dence to conclude that delaying childbearing

beyond age 18 directly benets or harms off-

spring’s educational attainment.

Department of Sociology, Universityof North

Carolina—Chapel Hill, Hamilton Hall, Chapel Hill, NC

27599 (samsh@live.unc.edu)

∗Department of Sociology, Florida State University, 526

Bellamy Building, Tallahassee, FL 32306.

Key Words: aging, education, fertility, inequality, mothers,

siblings.

A well-established body of literature (e.g.,

Addo, Sassler, & Williams, 2016; Levine,

Emery, & Pollack, 2007; Levine, Pollack, &

Comfort, 2001) provides consistent theoretical

and empirical support that early childbearing

is associated with worse academic outcomes

among children. Early childbearing interrupts

parents’ human capital development and earn-

ings (Diaz & Fiel, 2016; Kane, Morgan, Harris,

& Guilkey, 2013) and the accumulation and

transmission of economic, social, and cultural

capital (Powell, Steelman, & Carini, 2006).

The loss of these familial resources reduces

offspring’s educational attainment (Björklund

& Salvanes, 2011). Likewise, Fergusson and

Woodward (1999) found that the offspring of

mothers younger than age 30 had less support-

ive, nurturing, and stable households than the

children of older mothers. The authors suc-

cinctly argued that this phenomenon is part of a

selection process; those who give birth at young

ages, particularly as adolescents, are likely the

“least well equipped for parenting” among their

peers (Fergusson & Woodward, 1999, p. 488).

This body of literature solely concentrates on

early childbearing as a distinctly disadvantaged

category of births, ignoring potential negative

effects of advanced maternal age.

During the past 4 decades, maternal age at

birth for all birth orders has been increasing

in the United States (J. A. Martin et al., 2007;

J. A. Martin, Hamilton, Osterman, Driscoll, &

Mathews, 2017). Research demonstrates that

delayed childbearing, especially after age 40, is

Journal of Marriage and Family 80 (August 2018): 853–870 853

DOI:10.1111/jomf.12490

854 Journal of Marriage and Family

associated with diminished fecundity (Balasch

& Gratacós, 2011), and increased incidences

of infant mortality and perinatal complications

(Jacobsson, Ladfors, & Milsom, 2004). Children

born to older mothers who survive past infancy

are at greater risk of adverse health outcomes,

such as poorer self-rated health, coronary heart

disease, diabetes, obesity, cancer, and mortality

(Barker, 2002; Johnson et al., 2009; Myrskylä

& Fenelon, 2012). Therefore, this rising trend

in postponed childbearing may impact the

well-being of recent cohorts. Although the

association between delayed childbearing and

diminished fecundity and (infant and adult)

health are well established, it is less clear how

advanced maternal age at birth impacts her

offspring’s academic outcomes.

The positive association between education

and individual well-being is well documented,

including better physical and mental health out-

comes (Hummer & Hernandez, 2013; Lundborg,

2013; Mirowsky & Ross, 2003), relationship

stability (i.e., divorce, relationship dissolution;

Cherlin, 2010; T. C. Martin & Bumpass, 1989),

and inter- and multigenerational socioeconomic

mobility (Mare, 2014). Thus, education is a

central factor in determining adult well-being.

Given the inuence of education on life chances

and the increasing trend in delayed childbearing,

the current study extends the existing literature

by examining the association between maternal

childbearing age and children’s educational

attainment. The study makes the following three

primary contributions to literature on fertility

timing and academic outcomes: (a) identify the

best-tting functional form of the association

between maternal age and offspring’s educa-

tional attainment, (b) estimate the maternal

age at birth that provides optimal opportunities

for offspring’s educational attainment, and (c)

advance the discussion on the consequences of

childbearing at advanced maternal ages.

S W F, B

F,  B D

The literature outlines the following three expla-

nations for the association between advanced

maternal age and offspring’s educational attain-

ment: within-family differences in resource

allocation, between-family fertility selection

processes, and biological decline. The rst

explanation regards maternal age as a deter-

minant of stratication within the family.

Accordingly, women’s childbearing age may

positively or negatively inuence their off-

spring’s opportunities by reducing or increasing

the resources they receive in comparison to their

siblings. These familial resources could be nan-

cial resources, human capital (Becker, 1994),

cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1984), and inter-

personal resources (Fergusson & Woodward,

1999). Although some researchers propose

a negative association between parental age

and the familial resources conferred to their

children (for a review, see Powell et al., 2006),

most studies nd a positive relationship. Mare

and Tzeng (1989), for example, found that

delayed fathering was benecial for sons’ edu-

cational attainment but observed diminishing

education returns at older ages (i.e., a tailing

curvilinear relationship). Powell et al. (2006)

found evidence for curvilinear relationships

between maternal age and resources conferred

to children. Most of these relationships became

positive and linear after adjusting for parental

socioeconomic status. Furthermore, in a com-

ment on supplementary analyses, Powell et al.

(2006) noted that maternal age may have a curvi-

linear relationship with academic outcomes net

of socioeconomic confounders, recommending

that future research examine this relationship.

Although these studies do not directly exam-

ine the relationship between maternal age at

birth and offspring’s educational attainment,

the results suggest the association is positive

and linear, with a possibility of a curvilinear

relationship.

European literature focused on the possi-

bility of within-family stratication by using

sibling xed effects models to control for

between-family differences. Using Dutch sur-

vey data for birth cohorts between 1918 and

1974, Kalmijn and Kraaykamp (2005) demon-

strated evidence of positive within-family

effects of maternal age on offspring’s educa-

tional attainment. Drawing on Swedish register

data for birth cohorts born between 1960 and

1982, Barclay and Myrskylä (2016) observed a

similar positive relationship between maternal

age and offspring’s educational attainment.

However, this relationship disappeared after

controlling for birth cohort, demonstrating

that this relationship was driven by a secular

trend in increasing education. It is unlikely that

Kalmijn and Kraaykamp’s nding of a positive

relationship was driven by a secular trend as

they controlled for birth cohort trends in tertiary