Women Who Delay Kids Could Prevent Financial 'Motherhood Penalty'

by Colleen Egan (Subscribe to Colleen Egan's posts)
Apr 16th 2010 3:00PM

Jennifer Lopez had her twins, Max and Emme, when she was 38. Credit: Bauer-Griffen

Holding off on babies could benefit women's bank accounts, according to a new study.

Researchers at the University of Maryland in College Park and the University of California at Los Angeles found that women who had kids in their early- to mid-20s or even younger didn't fare as well economically as those who delayed, USA Today reports.

"Women who delay childbearing end up as successful economically as women who didn't have children, and we look at it basically throughout their adult years -- well into their 50s," says study co-author Joan Kahn, a sociologist at the University of Maryland in College Park.

For the study, researchers reviewed 35 years of data from some 2,200 women born between 1944 and 1954. Kahn says they picked age 26 as the number for later births because 20 percent of those studied had had their first-born at that age, USA Today reports.

Women who are younger when they have kids and attempt to get back into the workforce later may not have that up-front investment in education and training, which those who have kids later benefit from, Kahn says.

Related: Sharp Drop in Maternal Deaths Worldwide

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