Child Support in Shared Care Cases: Do Child Support Policies in Thirteen Countries Reflect Family Policy Models?

Daniel R. Meyer,Mia Hakovirta,Christine Skinner

doi:10.1017/s1474746421000300

Abstract

Increasingly, parents in separated families equally share care of their children post-separation. In this article we extend a well-known family policy model to generate hypotheses about the level of child support to be paid by separated parents when children live primarily with their mother (‘sole custody’) in contrast to when children spend equal time with both parents (‘shared care’). We test these hypotheses with data collected from thirteen countries. In sole custody cases, countries with an earner-carer policy model do have lower child support expectations than countries with a traditional family policy model or a market-oriented model, as predicted. Countries with a traditional family policy model do have the highest orders in the shared case, as predicted. However, there is as much variation within models as there is between, suggesting new analytic frameworks for considering child support in family policy need to be developed.

Highlights

Child support refers to the financial obligations of separated parents in which one parent is obligated to pay cash to the other parent to share the costs of raising their children (Skinner et al, 2007)
We suggest that the variation of orders within any family policy model should be lower than the variation between models
We expected that countries with an earner-carer model would have lower orders than countries with a traditional family policy model or a market-oriented model

Summary

Introduction

Child support (child maintenance) refers to the financial obligations of separated parents in which one parent (historically the father) is obligated to pay cash to the other parent (historically the mother) to share the costs of raising their children (Skinner et al, 2007). Predictions about how the levels of child support are related to family policy models in a typical separated family in which children live most overnights with their mother (sole custody) have not been extensively tested, and this is the first goal of this article.

Results

Conclusion