Abstract
U.S. teen birth rates remain high relative to other industrialized countries. Despite extensive literature on teen mothers and their children, almost no research examines the effects of teen fertility on the rest of the mother’s family. I address this gap, finding that teen birth negatively affects mothers’ younger siblings. Using several matched control methods, I find that sisters of new teenage mothers experience a 3.8 percentage-point decrease in test scores, a 7.6 percentage-point increase in grade repetition, and a 9.3 percentage-point increase high school dropout, while brothers experience a 9.2 percentage-point increase in juvenile justice system exposure.
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