The findings of the research, funded by the Department of Health and carried out by a team at the Institute of Social and Economic Research at Essex University, conflict with previous studies and the generally held view that teenage pregnancy affects a woman's career prospects because it cuts short her education.
The report, Does a teen birth have longer-term impacts on the mother? Evidence from the 1970 British Cohort Study, by John Ermisch and David Pevalin, said it was usually difficult to measure the possible long-term effects of teenage motherhood because it is not possible to know what the mother would have done if she had not had a child so young.
But using new data on teenage pregnancies and miscarriages, the researchers compared the lives of 30-year-old women who would have gone on to have a child, had they not miscarried, with women who had had babies as teenagers.
The report found a teen birth had had little impact on a woman's qualifications, employment or earnings by the age of 30.
But her standard of living was still likely to be affected, the report said. Having a baby caused a teenage mother to fare worse in the 'marriage market' because she was more likely to have a male partner who had poor academic qualifications and was more likely to have had periods of unemployment.
The report is on the website www.iser.essex.ac.uk.
