Korean Divorced Mothers' Experiences with Child Support from Noncustodial Fathers

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore Korean divorced mothers' experiences with child support. The data were collected from 17 Korean divorced mothers who were divorced between the years of 2004 and 2009 and were raising at least one minor child. Data were analyzed based on the inductive data analysis method. Most mothers negotiated to receive child support from noncustodial fathers without experiencing much conflict with the fathers at the time of the divorce, but only five mothers received child support at the time of the interviews. The mothers experienced difficulties in receiving child support from the fathers under the child support policy in Korea that treated child support as a personal issue and provided little systemic support for child support. Regarding required parenting agreements, most of the mothers acknowledged the need to have parenting agreements but they still wanted voluntary payment of the child support from the fathers. The results suggest that it is necessary to expand parenting education for divorced parents to encourage voluntary participation in parenting and to improve the child support policy by introducing child support guidelines and enhancing child support collection systems.