Impacts of Childbearing on College Success: A Study of Two Generations

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 8:00 am Four Seasons Ballroom 4
  In Roundtable Session: Hidden Inequalities: Poverty, Parenting, and School Performance (Table 3)

Abstract

This study compared the impacts of individual and contextual variables on bachelor’s degree attainment among Baby Boomer and Millennial women. Using descriptive statistics and logistic regressions on U.S. Census data from 22–24-year-old women in 1980 and 2020, one of the goals of this study was to highlight the factors most predictive of degree completion among college-oriented women. This study also analyzed how demographic, regional, and other factors impacted women’s postsecondary participation and degree attainment across these two generations There were important findings regarding the impacts of childbirth, marriage, region, living accommodations, and race and ethnicity.

Author

• Kimberly Beets, University of Kansas