This paper intends to contribute to the economic literature that investigates the origins of teenage pregnancy and early marriage/co habitation in Peru and to improve understanding of the risk factors of one important gender-related issue that has historically provoked asymmetric costs for boys and girls. First, the authors investigate how early cohabitation, marriage and childbearing vary according to early socioeconomic conditions; second, they explore to what extent the factors related to early poverty matter equally for boys and girls; third, they examine whether factors such as low aspirations and low expectations of future economic success, school achievement, socio-emotional  competencies, knowledge  of  family  planning,  and sexual  behaviours, can  contribute  to  explaining  teenage childbearing and marriage in disadvantaged contexts; and finally, they look at how changes in socioeconomic status, migration, and household structure, as well changes in aspirations, test scores, and socio-emotional competencies during childhood and early adolescence, might have increased or decreased the probability of teenage childbearing, marriage, and cohabitation.