Child Support Awards Research Articles

Justice Is in the Eye of the Beholder

This study aims to deepen our understanding of the perception of fairness in child support agreements. We build on the theory of reaching agreements and current knowledge considering justice perceptions in child support cases, applied to the specific case of Belgium, which lacks a uniform system for child support determination. Using qualitative in‐depth interviews conducted with both ex‐partners of a parental dyad, we analyze which factors pertain to the perception of (un)fairness and how this links to the way an agreement was reached. We find that, apart from the enumeration system and the height of the child support award, characteristics of the agreement and the parents are also of importance in determining the perception of (un)fairness. Converging these findings with the theory of reaching agreements provides a typology from communal problem‐solving to unilateral yielding, which are linked to specific parental foci/motivations and bring forth own sources of fairness and unfairness. The results of this study are particularly useful for mediation strategies aimed at enhancing the perception of fairness and offers relevant insights for child support policies at large.

Getting Blood From Stones: Results and Policy Implications of an Empirical Investigation of Child Support Practice in St. Joseph County, Indiana Paternity Actions

Today, there is consensus that the current system of allocating and enforcing child support obligations does not work well for disadvantaged families, most of which are nonmarital. Nonmarital children are less likely to have support orders established than marital children, and they are much less likely to experience full payment. In this article, we report data on child support awards and enforcement associated with a sample of paternity actions brought in 2008 or 2010 in St. Joseph County, Indiana. We found that child support practice in St. Joseph County promotes limited contact between children and their absent fathers, nonpayment of prior support obligations, and the accrual of arrears that can never be paid. These results strongly support recent changes in federal child support regulations and programs that postdate the orders in our study. Our results also demonstrate both the need for additional reforms and the difficulties that lie ahead as the states begin to grapple with applying the new standards.

Public Sentiments About the Parenting Time Adjustment in Child Support Awards

The states differ substantially among themselves as to what their guideline systems specify about reducing child support awards as a function of the division of parenting time after divorce. Most adopt a “cliff-model”, whereby no reductions are accorded until the parenting time to the noncustodial parent reaches some “shared parenting” threshold, generally about 35% of the total parenting time. As another in a series of experimental investigations about the sentiments of lay citizens pertaining to family law issues, the current investigation probed this issue, as well as the allied issue of whether the reason for nonvisitation might influence the child support adjustment. Results showed that the public’s judgments displayed continuous visitation adjustments to child support (as opposed to the cliff-model system instituted by most states), and that the amount of the adjustment reflected the amount the custodial parent saved due to visitation, rather than the amount the noncustodial parent spent. Of the reasons for non-visitation, only the father’s move (not the mother’s move nor her refusal to permit visitation) significantly affected the respondent’s child support judgments.

The Obligations of High-Income Parents

The Child Support Guidelines, incentivized by federal law, provide rebuttable guidance for setting child support awards, except in low- and high-income cases. This article focuses on the latter, as states continue to grapple with the question of whether the child should receive a proportion of the noncustodial parent’s income regardless of its amount, or whether there should be another limit. This article traces the narrative of child support obligations in high-income cases by considering the development of the economic aspect to the parent-child relationship, as well as the purpose and nature of the child support system. The resulting insights are especially useful for states seeking consistency in child support award decisions.

Informal Child Support Contributions in Black Female-Headed Families

Key reforms to child support enforcement have aimed at increasing formal child support awards, levels and receipts. However, the role of child support contributions outside the formal child support system has been largely ignored. This study draws critical attention to these informal child support contributions, with chief focus on informal child support receipts of Black mothers. The study finds that Black mothers are significantly more likely to receive informal cash and in-kind child support contributions relative to other mothers, especially when non-resident fathers are also Black.

Welfare, Child Support, and Strategic Behavior: Do High Orders and Low Disregards Discourage Child Support Awards?

Qualitative research has documented strategic behavior in response to child support policy. Parents of children on welfare have an incentive to avoid formal child support, since most states limit the amount of formal child support that women on welfare can receive (the disregard) and have relatively high child support orders for low-income fathers. This pa- per develops a simple model to make several predictions about how the disregard and order might interact to influence formal child support or- ders. Using data from the CPS-CSS merged with state child support vari- ables, I find some evidence that higher orders and lower disregards are associated with fewer child support orders.

Intuitive Lawmaking: The Example of Child Support

Setting the amount of a child support award involves tradeoffs in the allocation of finite resources among at least three private parties: the two parents, and their child or children. Federal law today requires states to have child support guidelines or formulas that determine child support amounts on a uniform statewide basis. These state guidelines differ in how they make these unavoidable tradeoffs. In choosing the correct balance of these competing claims, policymakers would do well to understand the public's intuitions about the appropriate tradeoffs. We report an empirical study of lay intuitions about these tradeoffs, which we compare to the principles underlying typical state guidelines. As in other contexts in which people are asked to place a dollar value on a legal claim, we find that citizen assessments of child support for particular cases conform to the pattern that Ariely and his co‐authors have called “coherent arbitrariness”: the respondent's choice of dollar magnitude may be arbitrary, but relative values respond coherently to case variations, within and across citizens. These patterns also suggest that our respondents have a consistent and systematic preference with respect to the structure of child support formulas that differs in important ways from either of the two systems adopted by nearly all states.

Understanding “Power Talk”: Language, Public Policy, and Democracy

This project expands upon social construction studies by critically examining the discourse patterns of two very different groups as they discuss their problems with the child support enforcement system: fathers' rights members (mostly white, middle class fathers who are organizing for emotional support and to reform the child support system) and fathers with children on welfare (mostly poor, African-American fathers). We use standard, qualitative analytical methods on primary, in-depth interview data collected from fathers' rights members, and compare that with in-depth interview data drawn from fathers with children on welfare. In brief, we find three overlapping perceptions in this policy area: child support awards are economically hurtful to fathers, child support obligations are not adjusted for other types of support, and child support enforcement discourages parental cooperation. However, we also show that while there is broad overlap in terms of the general nature of these complaints, each group's members use very different language to describe their difficulties. Fathers' rights members are much more likely to remain connected to the system, and while challenging current policy, do not champion lawbreaking as a viable means of demonstrating their opposition. Fathers with children on welfare, on the other hand, speak in terms that reflect their disconnection from these policies, and frequently reveal their subsequent choice to engage in evasive and even illegal behavior as viable means of expressing their dissatisfaction. Finally, we conclude that these different ways of speaking about public policy problems can have important implications for policymaker responsiveness, and ultimately, each group's political inclusion in a democratic society.Jocelyn Elise Crowley is Associate Professor of Public Policy at The Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (jocelync@rci.rutgers.edu). Margaret Watson has her Master's Degree in Public Policy from The Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (mwatson@alumni.rutgers.edu). Maureen R. Waller is Assistant Professor of Policy Analysis & Management, Cornell University (mrw37@cornell.edu). The authors would like to thank Joe Soss, Sandy Schram, Anne Schneider, Helen Ingram, M.B. Crowley, the Columbia University School of Social Work Seminar Series participants, the University of Washington West Coast Poverty Center Seminar Series participants, the NICHD Transition to Fatherhood Project, and the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments on this manuscript.

New evidence on the determinants of the gap between child support awards and child support receipts

Social scientists and policymakers have documented dramatic changes in the structure of US families over the past decades. In this paper, I analyze the child support compliance gap- the difference between expected payments and received child support payments- using a unique data set from the 1990-1993 SIPP on child support agreements. I explore the factors that determine the existence and the magnitude of a gap in payments using a probit model and regression analysis. Results suggest that both the existence of and magnitude of the child support gap are positively influenced by non-voluntary agreements received by the custodial parent.

Choice of Law in International Child Support Obligations: Hague or Vague, and Does it Matter?- An American Perspective

This article explores, through American eyes, the choice of law rules associated with the child support aspects of the proposed Hague Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance. It considers the role these rules play in capturing the “construct” that is the “family” for the purposes of child support by implicitly determining who is an acceptable claimant and who is an appropriate obligor. In addition, the rules determine which jurisdiction's law will establish the amount of support and thus, implicitly, they determine which jurisdiction sets the standards for family “performance”. American constitutional law demands a connection between the individual to be burdened and the jurisdiction imposing that burden. The proposed rules seem designed to take this into account, but doing so requires the scheme to abandon a preference for relying on the law of the creditor's habitual residence. American child support proceedings use pre-established guidelines to determine the amount of any child support award. These guidelines, which are premised on economic conditions in the individual states, are not suited to dealing with international disputes. The cases suggest that American courts are reluctant to abandon the efficiency of the guidelines in favor of detailed fact based analysis, even if the result is an “inappropriate” order - certainty comes at a price.

Why Doesn’t She Have a Child Support Order?: Personal Choice or Objective Constraint*

Abstract: Quantitative analyses were conducted in order to examine maternal characteristics connected to the establishment of a child support order and reasons why some mothers did not have an order. Based on single‐mother reports from the Current Population Survey during the 1994–1998 period, results indicated that approximately 36% of mothers eligible for child support did not have an order, and, for the majority of them, objective constraint such as establishing paternity played at least some role in not having an order. Findings suggest the need for interventions employing diverse approaches that are sensitive to racial and demographic patterns amongst single mothers in order to remove barriers connected to child support award.

A Further Look at Child Support Guidelines

Jo Michelle Beld's article on child support guidelines defends the efforts of the Minnesota Child Support Enforcement Division to maintain the state's formula for determining child support award amounts (2003). She responds to long-standing criticism, in this instance conveyed by Stephen Baskerville, that the child support enforcement community, which has a financial interest in child support amounts, exercises unchecked authority through the forced use of guidelines, and that as a result, child support awards are arbitrarily high (2002).

LEGISLATING LOVE: The Effect of Child Support and Welfare Policies on Father?child Contact

Reducing non-marital childbearing and making nonresidential fathers take greater responsibility for their children were identified as goals of numerous policy changes since the 1980s. Child-support award rates for children born to unmarried parents have been quite low historically, leading lawmakers to focus on increasing both award and payment rates for this group. Nonmarital fathers are also much less likely to have contact with their children. Although evidence suggests that policy efforts increase child support awards and receipt, the link between child support policies, child support outcomes, and father-child contact has received less attention. This paper uses data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation on children born between 1985–1997 to investigate the relationship between child-support award and receipt and the amount of contact that fathers have with their non-residential children. Since it is likely that both of these behaviors are, in part, determined by unobservable characteristics of the father, we estimate an instrumental variables Tobit model. The model is identified by our assumption that child support policy variables can impact child support awards and payments, but father-child contact cannot be directly legislated. Our results suggest that there are unintended, but desirable effects of child support establishment and collection. Policies to collect child support not only increase financial resources to families, but through their impact on payments increase visitation and contact between these children and their fathers. The estimated impact of receiving child support on contact is more than 27 days per year.

Economic Issues and Arguments in High Income Child Support Cases

Abstract No abstract available.

Key Determinants of a Mother's Decision to File for Child Support

About one-third of custodial mothers choose not to pursue a child support award even though it can be a significant source of income. A qualitative study was conducted with 43 mothers who have each had at least one child in a nonmarital relationship, to learn more about how mothers make the decision to file or not file for child support. The findings indicate that a key determinant in a mother's decision is the quality of her relationship with the father: a mother is less likely to file when the relationship is good and more likely to file when the relationship is poor or has ended. Other key determinants are family influence and availability of information about filing. Visitation was not found to influence these decisions. Unfortunately, mothers are often making their decisions without access to accurate and timely information. Social workers frequently are employed in settings that serve families faced with decisions about child support, and have numerous opportunities for intervention by providing both information and guidance about the decision.

Experiences with a Child Support Agency

Although there has been steady improvement in the amount of child support collected, it is estimated that about 70% of poor children eligible for child support do not receive it. There has been little formal study of mothers' interactions with child support offices and how these experiences may influence decisions about child support. This article presents a descriptive analysis of mothers' attitudes and experiences with a child support agency, giving voice to clients' perspectives about working with this system. The findings indicate that mothers find the public child support system to be inefficient and ineffective in helping them to obtain child support, even after they have a child support award. Their stories help us understand why many custodial parents become frustrated and angry at the system that has been put in place to help them, but often sets up barriers to their efforts to obtain child support. Only through more effective service delivery can parents become successful at receiving the child support needed to reduce their poverty level and improve the well being of their children.

The British Child Support Agency: Did American Origins Bring Failure?

In late 1990 the British government published a two-volume White Paper, Children Come First: The Government's Proposals on the Maintenance of Children, announcing its intention to establish a Child Support Agency (CSA). In contrast with most of the literature associated with the British CSA, my main concern in this paper is not with the direct identification of the problems, or the perceived problems, the agency has experienced since its inception in 1993; it is with how the agency was developed, and how this can help explain many of its subsequent problems or perceived problems. More directly, I will show that the origins of the agency are to be found in policy transfer from the USA, and that the difficulties inherent in this process led to important implementation problems. To do this, the paper is divided into four sections. In the first section I examine why the Thatcher government decided to develop the agency, rather than continuing with the Department of Social Security (DSS)/court-based child-support award system in operation at the time. Second, I demonstrate how parallel developments in Britain and the USA led the British government to be interested in, and then borrow, the key elements of the US Child Support Enforcement System (CSES). Third, I discuss the key elements of the CSA that were transferred from the USA. In the final section I illustrate how policy transfer offers an important, even if partial, explanation of the CSA's implementation problems, and why two successive governments have used considerable legislative time attempting to ‘fix’ the CSA.

Interactions Between Unmarried Fathers and Their Children: The Role of Paternity Establishment and Child-Support Policies

Nonmarital childbearing has increased substantially over the last few decades, comprising almost one-third of all births in the United States in 1995 (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1997). Poverty rates for these children are high, and many rely on public assistance. Reducing nonmarital childbearing and increasing responsibility of absent fathers were important goals of the 1996 welfarereform legislation and earlier state and federal child-support legislation. Although there is some evidence that paternity-establishment efforts increase the likelihood of child-support awards (Cynthia Miller and Irwin Garfinkel, 1999; Argys et al., 2001), until recently microdata to assess the determinants and consequences of paternity were not available. We use the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 cohort (NLSY97) to explore the determinants of paternity and the relationship between paternity and father involvement, such as child-support awards and contact between fathers and children. Our data show that paternity is associated with increases in all types of involvement. However, if the correlation is due solely to unobserved heterogeneity, then paternity policies would not have a causal effect on involvement. In this paper we model the paternity and father-involvement decisions jointly. Our results suggest that welfare, child-support, and paternity policies do alter the probability of establishing paternity, and that exogenous increases in paternity can affect father– child interactions. I. Background

Can the Family Support Act Put Some Life Back into Deadbeat Dads?: An Analysis of Child-Support Guidelines, Award Rates, and Levels

Federal legislation mandates the use of child-support guidelines to improve adequacy and horizontal equity of child-support awards. Using state guideline formulas, and a sample of women drawn from the NLSY we compare the effects of guidelines on children born out of wedlock versus children whose parents divorced or separated. Our analyses indicate that guidelines increase the probability of child-support awards for children born out of wedlock. Guidelines also reduce variation in awards by eliminating outliers, not by equalizing awards across the entire distribution. Awards for high-income divorced or separated fathers fall substantially below the guideline amount.

The Economics of Fatherhood

The growth of nonmarital fertility, together with greatly increased divorce rates and an increased proportion of children living in femaleheaded households, has provoked considerable alarm about the demise of the traditional family and concern about potentially harmful effects on the well-being of women and children. In this paper, I briefly summarize recent attempts by myself and others to develop a coherent theoretical framework to integrate economic theories of fertility and marriage in order to better understand why the same men who play the breadwinner role within marriage may fail to support their children following a divorce or who, despite the “gains to marriage,” may prefer to father children out of wedlock rather than within marriage. I argue that such behaviors of men can be understood within a framework that takes into account the selfinterests of both men and women as they interact within a given sexual or marital match and as they interact in a broader “market” for sexual and marriage partners. At the level of a given match, the theory provides hypotheses about the determinants of voluntary child support by fathers who are divorced from or have never married the mother. It also suggests reasons why voluntary child support is likely to be inadequate and, consequently, provides some insight about the role of laws and administrative procedures designed to establish paternity, determine the size of childsupport awards, and enforce collection of awards. At the level of the market, under certain circumstances, theory produces results similar to those emphasized by William Wilson and Katherine Neckerman’s (1987) theory of outof-wedlock childbearing among the underclass.