Targeted child support enforcement and its association with child support payments: Evidence from a program evaluation

Abstract

Abstract The Child Support Recovery Unit (CSRU) within the Iowa Department of Human Services is responsible for establishing and enforcing child support orders across the state. As part of a comprehensive effort to actualize services, CSRU and university partners developed and evaluated a positive family support model to maintain relationships with non-custodial parents. This article describes the evolution of the programming and examines the association between targeted child support enforcement initiative (termed Projecting Positivity Promotes Positivity and Cultural Change or Px4C2) and non-custodial parents’ support payments. We use the difference-in-differences framework to estimate the intervention effects on non-custodial parents’ child support. Results from the program evaluation model and payment data suggest a positive association with increased child support payments by 25 dollars on average and a 6.1 percentage point increase in the ratios of child support payments to child support dues. Results suggest that while this new approach was associated with increases for all non-custodial parents, the association was stronger for those who did not have a formal child support enforcement measure or mechanism in place prior to the intervention.