Childhood Poverty, Early Motherhood and AdultSocial Exclusion

Childhood poverty and early parenthood are both high on the politicalagenda. The key new issue addressed in this research is the relativeimportance of childhood poverty and of early motherhood as correlatesof outcomes later in life. How far are the ‘effects’ of early motherhood onlater outcomes due to childhood precursors, especially experience ofchildhood poverty? If there are powerful associations of both childhoodpoverty and early parenthood with later adult outcomes, there are anumber of subsidiary questions relating to the magnitude of theseassociations, the particular threshold levels of childhood poverty thatprove most critical, and whether it is, as often assumed, only teenagemothers who are subsequently disadvantaged, or also those who havetheir first birth in their early twenties? The source of data for this studyis the National Child Development Study.[...]