Spillover Effects within Families: Evidence from Teen Mothers and Their Siblings’ Performance from High School Through College

Abstract

The U.S. teen birth rate remains high relative to other industrialized countries. Despite extensive literature on teen mothers and their children, almost no research has examined the rest of the mother’s family. I address this gap, finding that teen birth negatively affects the mother’s younger siblings. To estimate this effect, I use several matched control methods, all of which compare siblings of teen mothers to similar students in other families. I show that it is important to control for pre-existing downward trajectories in these families, both for estimating sibling spillovers and for estimating the effect on the mother herself.