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Special thanks to the Social Development Minister in Chile for giving access to the data, and to amazing Research Assistants!

8/8 If you’d like to read the full paper: doi.org/10.1016/j.jd.... Any comments will be appreciated, and if you liked it, please share! @elsevierconnect.bsky.social

7/8 3) There is space for policy to decrease the negative effects with adequate support/flexibility for parents and 4) gender-disaggregated data can enable policymakers to tailor interventions effectively.

6/8 Our results pose at least 4 lessons for policy design and implementation: 1) Policies aimed at delaying parenthood should target vulnerable populations. 2) programs to tackle the negative effects of teenage parenthood should consider its effects on both men and women.

5/8 Our findings also suggest that support and stigma may play a role: girls who attended schools with low rates of teenage parenthood experienced a greater decline in enrollment upon becoming teenage mothers compared to those who attended schools where teenage parenthood was more prevalent.

4/8 What’s even sadder is that we also find the negative effects of teenage parenthood are larger for adolescents from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds, which opposes what has been found in countries such as the US and Denmark.

3/8 Our main result is that teenage parenthood reduces enrollment for both teen mothers and teen fathers. Surprising? No! But what’s interesting (and also sad 😢) is that the effect is worse and more enduring for teen mothers.

2/8 We use Chilean administrative data covering 6 cohorts born between 1990 and 1995 to examine the short-term effects of teen parenthood on enrolment. We use event studies methodology to estimate the impact before, during, and after the year they conceive.