Search

Examined extent to which child support guidelines developed by states in response to Child Support Amendments of 1984 and Family Support Act of 1988 might increase child support awards and payments. Findings from three states suggest that new guidelines will increase child support payments by 47-54 percent and awards by between 77 percent and 88 percent. (Author/NB)

Child support is a key resource for children living apart from their fathers, yet little is known about how child support changes over the course of childhood, particularly for different types of child support and by parents' relationship status at the child's birth. This study uses longitudinal data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to examine trajectories of formal, informal, and total cash and in-kind support provided by nonresident fathers for children from birth to age 15. We find that all fathers initially pay more informal than formal support, but informal support falls precipitously over the first few years of separation while formal support gradually increases, becoming the largest source of cash support over time. We also find that in-kind support, initially the most common form of support, also declines as time living away from the child increases, but remains an important resource over the entire period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We use data from a new longitudinal survey - the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study - to examine how welfare and child support policies, and local labor market conditions, affect union formation among unmarried parents who have just had a child together. We use multinomial logistic regression to estimate the effects of the policy variables along with economic, cultural/interpersonal, and other factors on whether (relative to being in a cohabiting relationship) parents are not romantically involved, romantically involved living apart, or married to each other about one year after the child's birth. We find that contrary to some previous research higher welfare benefits discourage couples from breaking up, while strong child support enforcement reduces the chances that unmarried parents will marry; local unemployment rates do not appear to be strongly associated with union formation decisions after a nonmarital birth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stricter child support enforcement may reduce unwed childbearing by raising the costs of fatherhood. The authors investigate this hypothesis using a sample of young women from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, to which they add information on state child support enforcement. Models of the probability of a teenage premarital birth and of teenage premarital pregnancy and pregnancy resolution provide tentative evidence that during the early 1980s, teens living in states with higher rates of paternity establishment were less likely to become unwed mothers. This relationship is stronger for non-Hispanic Whites than for non-Hispanic Blacks. The findings suggest that policies that shift more costs of premarital childbearing to men may reduce this behavior, at least among non-Hispanic Whites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fabricius and Braver argue that nonresident fathers incur appreciable visitation expenses and that their child support obligations should be reduced accordingly. To assess whether fathers incur "appreciable" expenses requires data from mothers and fathers on expenditures in dollar terms rather than data from college students on items kept in the nonresident father's house. The Fabricius and Braver data also overstate the degree to which all divorced fathers do anything for their children. Representative data indicate that father visitation declines substantially over time. Father's postdivorce, post-child support standard of living remains twice that of mothers and children. The cliff model-making adjustments for visitation only in the rare cases of very high shared physical custody-is sensible policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there is a large body of research devoted to the issue of the determinants of welfare caseloads, none of these studies has incorporated the effects of child support enforcement (CSE). We employ annual state panel data from 1980 to 1999 and find that states with more effective CSE have significantly lower welfare caseloads. The improvement in CSE over this period reduces welfare caseloads by about 9 percent in 1999. We also discover that individual child support variables may not be good indicators of state CSE vigor and that a CSE index that includes multiple dimensions of CSE is more likely to capture the multipliative functions of CSE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the effect of child support on welfare caseload dynamics. Impact of managerial quality on public management and organizational performance; Characteristic of welfare recipients; Determination of the child support enforcement.

Provides information on the effectiveness of state child support enforcement systems in the United States. Use of data from the Child Support Supplements of the Current Population Survey (1978-1992) to create an index of state effectiveness; Role of deadbeat fathers and inept states in the low levels of support.

This article examines the new guidelines as of 1985, determines whether they represent a significant departure from the existing award- setting system, distinguishes between their effects on establishing initial awards and updating of awards, and estimates their effects on child support payments. Although the states are still refining their approaches to developing guidelines, two distinct approaches have emerged. These arc the cost- sharing (CS) approach and the income-sharing (IS)approach. The CS approach defines the child support award in terms of the cost of raising a child. In states that are currently using the CS approach, adjustments are usually made for the standard of living of both parents. The result is an award that is hot pure cost sharing. The approach defines the support award in terms of the incomes of one or both parents. Some versions of the IS approach make adjustments for child-care expenditures and/or extraordinary medical expenditures, and hence have elements of the CS approach, and others are pure income sharing.