Children's living arrangements from a social policy implementation perspective

Abstract

This paper examines changes in children's living arrangements nationally over a 10-year period as a function of changes in state policies governing AFDC, child support enforcement and divorce laws. The study uses data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) for the years 1984–1993 and analyzes a pooled sample of 79 729 children who lived in one of three major arrangements: with both biological parents, with biological mother only and with neither biological parents. Using a multinomial logit model, the study finds that some government policies appear to exert an influence on children's living arrangement. Specifically, the study finds that for both black and white children, stronger child support enforcement by a state lowers the probability of the children living in mother-only or neither parent households. In addition, for black children, higher AFDC benefit levels are found to foster mother-only households.