Female adolescent childbearing in Brazil, 1992-2006: determinants and association with school attendance and labor market participation

Andre J. Caetano, Centro de Desenvolvimento e Planejamento Regional (CEDEPLAR)

This article examines the trends in the probability of adolescent childbearing in Brazil over the period 1992-2006 and, given this probability, analyzes the chance of school attendance, labor force participation, both or neither one among adolescents aged 12 to 19 years. We employ variables to account for socioeconomic context, demographic characteristics, and latent family resources. We also use variables to control for age, period and cohort. The key assumption is that adolescent childbearing is a major event in the intergenerational transmission of poverty. We also analyze whether the probability of adolescent childbearing among low-income teenagers has been following the declining trend of the Brazilian fertility and thus whether a structural change has occurred in this period. In this respect, we look at differences between socioeconomic strata and whether period effects and cohort effects are behind this change. We use pseudo-panel methodology on a nationally representative household sample carried out annually.