Child Support Program Research Articles

‘Let’s Bring It Into the 21st Century’: Perceptions of fairness in child support

BackgroundEngaging families in child support services is an ongoing challenge. In recognition of the limitations of traditional strategies, the child support program has started to incorporate service-based approaches and procedural justice ideas (i.e., approaches based on the idea that perceptions of process fairness affect an individual’s response) into program efforts with a goal of improving outcomes for parents and children. ObjectiveAmidst this shifting landscape, the current study aims to provide insight into family experiences with child support, and specifically, how stakeholders (including parents served by child support and actors working within the system) conceptualize fairness in the context of child support. MethodsThrough semi-structured interviews with parents who owe and are due child support (n = 26) and child support agency leaders and staff (n = 12), this study explores what fairness in child support means to these stakeholders; overall perceptions of fairness and perceptions of fairness at key junctures (e.g., order establishment, modification, and enforcement); and stakeholder visions for a more fair system. ResultsWe found that interview participants across stakeholder groups often felt that having a program to ensure children are cared for financially is fair conceptually, though perspectives on how and when the program should engage with families varied within and across participant groups, as did perspectives on the realities of fairness in family experiences. Interview participants perceived some aspects of child support processes and outcomes to be unfair. Key sources of perceived unfairness included pathways into the child support program and when participation is required; difficulty accessing order modifications in response to changing circumstances; strategies used to enforce orders; and communication challenges. Visions for a more fair system included a desire for a more family-centered, holistic services; more personalized service delivery and communication; targeting services towards families who want and need them; and more connections to mediation and legal resources. ConclusionsFindings suggest that parent perceptions of fairness and experiences with the program could be supported through comprehensive community engagement, careful consideration of policies and processes for public benefits referrals, expansion of efforts to connect parents to supports and resources, simplification of processes, and improving resources and accessibility.

Supporting the health, education and wellbeing of children and families: A priority-setting study with the service system in Logan, Queensland

Priority-setting is a collective responsibility centred around inclusive engagement and alignment with the needs and desired outcomes of the community. In this study, we leveraged the collective expertise of stakeholders from the child and family service system, to identify priorities for supporting the health, education and wellbeing of children and families living in Logan, Queensland. A pragmatic approach combining a modified nominal group technique and consensus methodology was undertaken. Key system factors were identified and consolidated into 10 priority areas, which were ranked via an online questionnaire. The top three priority areas were identified by the service system as (i) early family and child support programs, (ii) support and resourcing of existing services, and (iii) recognition and support of a diverse community. These results present an opportunity to leverage the local knowledge and expertise of the service system to design solutions that address the greatest challenges for children and families in place.

Optimizing health services for young children in poverty: enhanced collaboration between Early Head Start and pediatric health care.

Given the importance of health to educational outcomes, and education to concurrent and future health, cross-systems approaches, such as the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) framework, seek to enhance services typically in K-12 settings. A major gap exists in cross-systems links with early care and education serving children birth to age 5. Both pediatric health systems and early family and child support programs, such as Early Head Start (EHS) and Head Start (HS), seek to promote and optimize the health and wellbeing of infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and their families. Despite shared goals, both EHS/HS and pediatric health providers often experience challenges in reaching and serving the children most in need, and in addressing existing disparities and inequities in services. This paper focuses on infant/toddler services because high-quality services in the earliest years yield large and lasting developmental impacts. Stronger partnerships among pedicatric health systems and EHS programs serving infants and toddlers could better facilitate the health and wellbeing of young children and enhance family strengths and resilience through increased, more intentional collaboration. Specific strategies recommended include strengthening training and professional development across service platforms to increase shared knowledge and terminology, increasing access to screening and services, strengthening infrastructure and shared information, enhancing integration of services, acknowledging and disrupting racism, and accessing available funding and resources. Recommendations, including research-based examples, are offered to prompt innovations best fitting community needs and resources.

Slowing the ‘vicious cycle’: Reducing the interest rate on child support arrears

The amount of accumulated unpaid child support (arrears) owed throughout the United States is over $100 billion. High arrears balances mean that those who owe support may face punitive enforcement actions, those due child support did not receive the money they were owed, and the child support program must devote more attention to enforcing payment of past-due amounts at the expense of enforcing current amounts due, diverting the program’s efforts and raising the cost of enforcement. To address the problems associated with high arrears, Wisconsin reduced the amount of interest due on child support arrears from 1% per month to 0.5% per month. We leverage Wisconsin child support administrative records to conduct both descriptive and multiple regression analyses to explore arrears and payment patterns before and after the change. Findings suggest the policy not only slowed the rate of arrears growth but also increased payment amounts. Those who did not owe arrears at the beginning of the period made higher payments when they did get behind than those who owed higher arrears. Our analyses cannot prove causality, but they do provide some of the first evidence of what happens after the interest rate changes.

Gender, malice, obligation and the state: Separated mothers’ experiences of administrative burdens with Australia's child support program

AbstractThis article provides an empirical account of Herd and Moynihan's theory of administrative burdens as they apply to Australian child support recipients. Interviews with 41 separated mothers revealed how they were compelled to engage in the child support system and then required to expend significant time and effort undertaking administrative work on behalf of the state, often for little financial benefit. Unlike the examples provided by Herd and Moynihan, in this study, it was found that child support system burdens could be used by aggrieved fathers to inflict financial and psychological harms on their ex‐partners. The state accepted fathers’ imposition of costs on mothers as they shared a financial interest in maintaining women's burdens. As a result, this paper provides three conceptual advancements on the existing theory, by articulating: how administrative burdens can be created and applied by non‐government third parties, in this case individual ex‐family members; how the state can acquiesce to the imposition of harms if these align with their interests; and how the state distributes obligations and autonomy along social lines, such as, in this case, along the lines of class and gender.

International Child Sponsorship Improves School Performance: Evidence from Goma (DRC)

Abstract This paper provides new evidence on the impact on educational attainment of an international child support (ICS) program, implemented in ten primary schools located in the peri-urban districts of the city of Goma (Democratic Republic of Congo). Using original micro data from a sample of 309 children (treated, 121; control, 188), we explore, through a difference-in-differences approach, whether the ICS program, which reduces the structural uncertainty faced by the targeted pupils and their families, impacts on a broad set of alternative educational outcomes—namely, performance scores in four different subjects (civic education and religion, French languages, national languages and mathematics), total score, failure and school drop-out rates. The results show that sponsored children report lower drop-out and failure rates in comparison to their control peers and that they succeed in catching up in all subjects in two school years. Results are robust to the implementation of a coarsened exact matching procedure, exploiting the data structure to produce unbiased estimates along with bounded ex-post balancing.

Репрезентація дитинства в українських Інтернет-ЗМІ

At present, online resources play a leading role among news channels. Therefore for the study we selected journalistic content from the three leading online media of Ukraine for 2019 («Ukrayinsʹka Pravda», «TSN» and «Channel 24»). A detailed content analysis of articles on the topics of childhood and children as vulnerable social group representatives has been conducted, by the agency of special media coverage techniques. Thematic classification of materials has been proposed: social (success and achievement stories, school life, health, culture, science, behavioral social studies), public (child support programs, legislative reform, community organizations and initiatives, children assistance), family (tips for parents, ideas for leisure), tabloids (accidents and road crashes, child abuse, star children, funny cases, and curiosities). The biggest was the group of tabloid materials (47.6%), the second place was occupied by the social problems’ materials (21.6%), family texts amounted to 8.11%, and public interest ― only 2.5%. The trends of the image of children in the media were distinguished based on a statistical study of materials (children in the materials of the Internet media were presented in two main directions: 1) weakness and lack of security; 2) fun and carelessness with a significant predominance of the first group). The creation of the image of childhood analysis following the standards of journalistic work is conducted and the overall evaluation of the topic development and ways of its coverage is given. The prerequisites for the subject of follow-up studies on childhood in mass media were created. Keywords: children, childhood image, Internet media, content analysis, journalism.

Getting the Court in Your Business: Unmarried Parents, Institutional Intersectionality, and Establishing Parenting Time Orders in Family Court

AbstractThe child support program reaches half of poor children in the United States, and recent policy proposals would incorporate parenting time into all initial child support orders. Despite the importance and scope of these proposed changes for unmarried parents, research about how parents interpret the decision to set up parenting time orders in family court is limited. Qualitative evidence from individual and group interviews shows that unmarried mothers and fathers perceive family court through competing frames, leading to strategies of either avoidance or engagement with the court system in certain circumstances. Some parents in the study framed family courts as intrusive and opted to stay away from court to avoid unwanted scrutiny by the child welfare and criminal justice systems. In contrast, other parents framed family courts as protective of their families and sought legal help when their child's custody was ambiguous, their child's safety was threatened, or their status in public programs was at stake. These findings are consistent with research on institutional distrust and avoidance but also suggest heterogeneity in unmarried parents’ views of family court as a system that both surveils and safeguards poor families. Findings further demonstrate that unmarried parents view these decisions from a position of institutional intersectionality, or their position at the intersection of multiple state systems that interact with the courts.

“They Look at You like You're Nothing”: Stigma and Shame in the Child Support System

More than 22 million or 1 in 4 children in the United States are currently served by the child support program. This program, the third largest used to address childhood poverty, regulates non‐custodial parents' financial support of their children through federal, state, and municipal legislation and policies. The collateral consequences, particularly those related to economic stability and criminal justice involvement, associated with child support system participation have been widely studied. However, many of the interpersonal interactions between those who have cases in the system and those who work in the system have been largely ignored. In this article, I use courtroom observations, in‐depth interviews, and cultural artifacts to explore the practices of stigmatization and shaming in this important legal and bureaucratic process. I explore stigma and shame in three thematic areas: (1) shame in social interactions, (2) shame as a tool of social control, and (3) the social consequences of shame. I ultimately suggest that stigma and shame in the child support system, resembling that in the welfare and criminal justice systems, reinforces cognitive boundaries between parents perceived as “responsible” and those perceived as “deadbeats.”

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.

Examining the relationship between incarceration and child support arrears among low-income fathers

The child support program promotes parental responsibility, so that children receive support from both parents even when they live in separate households. While this program aims to reduce poverty, the program has financially burdensome consequences for low income, noncustodial parents who have experienced incarceration. Noncustodial parents may accrue arrears when they are unable to work due to incarceration. This study examines the relationship between incarceration and child support arrears among low-income fathers. The results from the analyses imply that incarceration is a predictor of fathers' accruing child support debt and fathers who have experienced incarceration tend to have higher child support arrears than fathers who have not experienced incarceration. This illustrates that people seeking to reintegrate into society from correctional institutions face economic disadvantages making it more difficult for them to contribute financially to their families. This study concludes with policy solutions which create cohesion between the child support and criminal justice systems.

State Facilitated Economic Abuse: A Structural Analysis of Men Deliberately Withholding Child Support

Economic abuse is well established as a widespread and damaging element of intimate partner violence. However research largely addresses cohabiting couples, with few detailed explorations of women’s longer-term experiences after separation. Further, researchers have not developed a gendered analysis of child support related economic abuse. Such an analysis requires understanding gender as a framework that organises institutions and relationships in ways that build and reproduce hierarchical relations of difference. In this paper, I present data from in-depth interviews with 37 single mothers to pursue a structural analysis of how men’s deliberate withholding of child support (termed child maintenance in some countries) can be a form of economic abuse that is facilitated through gendered state processes and institutions that order child support transfers. I argue that masculine financial discretion structures policy and organizational practices in ways that legitimate men’s financial agency at the expense of women’s financial autonomy. On-going compliance issues are not the result of a failure of Australia’s Child Support Program, but suggest that the state’s role can be one of regulation, not prevention, of economic abuse. Thus, Australia’s Child Support Program normalises the potential for post-separation economic abuse.

European Policies to Promote Children’s Rights and Combat Child Poverty

The upbringing of children relies heavily on shared responsibilities between parents and society. The Council of Europe Recommendation (2006) 19 on Policy to Support Positive Parenting and the European Commission Recommendation (2013) Investing in Children: Breaking the Cycle of Disadvantage, both aim at supporting parents to care and provide for their children in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. By means of a document analysis this article examines what kind of parental practices and provision to parents the recommendations suggest to safeguard children’s rights in the family. Three findings are highlighted: first, both recommendations reflect a commitment to respecting children’s rights while at the same time acknowledging parents as children’s primary caregivers. Second, both recognize parents’ rights to work, while also recognizing the necessity of adequate income support if work is not available or income too low. Third, adequate resources are defined as a combination of universal policies and services, which guarantee a minimum level for all, and targeted measures reaching out to the most disadvantaged. The recommendations’ emphasis on children and parents as partners and on the families’ economic situations are valuable for future development of family and child policy and support programs.

Abstract Types of Dialogues among Cancer Survivors with Children ―Analyses of the Dialogues among Mothers in a Parent―Child Support Program

Abstract Types of Dialogues among Cancer Survivors with Children ―Analyses of the Dialogues among Mothers in a Parent―Child Support Program

Establishing Parenting Time in Child Support Cases: New Opportunities and Challenges

Despite dramatic increases in collections, child support frequently fails to be the linchpin to family self‐sufficiency that it could be, and many researchers, advocates and policymakers have concluded that future progress in collections will require making the child support system more fair and responsive to its growing poor, never‐married caseload. High on the list of suggested reforms is paying more attention to involving poor fathers in the lives of their children. Since the inception of the child support program in 1975, parenting time and child support have been legally distinct issues and activities pertaining to parenting time have not qualified for the 66 percent of funding that the federal government provides to fund the child support program. As a result, few child support programs address parenting time when they establish or enforce child support orders. Public Law 113–183 (2014) includes a provision to encourage the establishment of safe parenting time arrangements in new child support orders, although the activity is voluntary and no new funding is provided. This article describes the treatment of parenting time in the child support program and the approaches that some states and local jurisdictions have adopted to develop and incorporate parenting time responsibilities with family violence safeguards in new child support orders. This includes the use of standard parenting time schedules, self‐help resources, mediation or facilitation with a neutral third party, and comprehensive programs that attempt to address multiple barriers. Key Points for the Family Court Community Parenting time and child support are legally distinct issues and courts typically order child support for parents of children born out‐of‐wedlock without simultaneously ordering parenting time arrangements. Research shows that addressing parenting time improves parent‐child contact and child support payments and that positive paternal engagement improves child outcomes. A few state and local child support agencies address parenting time using standard parenting time schedules, self‐help resources for parents, mediation or facilitation with a neutral third‐party; and comprehensive programs that address multiple barriers. Developing a safe, structured approach to parenting time for the child support population will require coordination among courts, domestic violence programs and child support agencies, and allowing these activities to qualify for federal matching funds.

일본 육아지원 공동주택 인증사례의 계획요소 특성에 관한 연구 - 일본 요코하마(橫浜)시의 사례를 중심으로 -

The purpose of this study is to analyze the contents and assessment items in the certification criteria for Child Care Support Apartment program in Japan that is implemented mainly by local authorities with a view to provide information that could be used as reference in enhancement of the residential environment. For this purpose, the architectural planning elements for individual residence units and the public spaces of the Child Care Support Apartment Certification programs in effect in Yokohama city were identified and analyzed. In spite of the recent trends in Korea, in which the residential services are more diversified and segmented in consideration of the needs of the residents and the increased interest in child care in general, the literatures that addressed the direct relationship between childbirth and residences are scarce, and it is anticipated that the result of this study would be of contribution to provide a hint in direction for improvement of residential environment with child support programs.

A Case-Study on the Certificates Criteria of Child Care Support Apartment in Yokohama, Japan

The purpose of this study is to analyze the contents and assessment items in the certification criteria for Child Care Support Apartment program in Japan that is implemented mainly by local authorities with a view to provide information that could be used as reference in enhancement of the residential environment. For this purpose, the architectural planning elements for individual residence units and the public spaces of the Child Care Support Apartment Certification programs in effect in Yokohama city were identified and analyzed. It is anticipated that the result of this study would be of contribution to provide a hint in direction for improvement of residential environment with child support programs.

Child-support Program in The Suburbs of Nagoya Metropolitan Area

Child-support Program in The Suburbs of Nagoya Metropolitan Area

Support Program to Mothers of Sexually Abused Children in North West Province in South Africa: A Literature Review

The purpose of the study was to conduct a comprehensive literature review on existing formal and informal support system for the mothers whose children were survivors of sexual abuse. Articles published from 1990- 2010 in peer review journals and books were examined from PUBMED, CINAHL, hand search of bibliographies, and reports published by World Health Organization (WHO).The search focused on: program for mothers whose children were sexually assaulted, need for the support program, experiences of the mother regarding the child's sexual trauma, mother support to the child after disclosure, existing health care policies. Original articles only were included and these articles contained key words: Mothers/parents/caregivers, child sexual abuse, support program, rape and non- abusive mothers. The articles were to (1) describe program for the mothers, (2) acknowledge a need for the support system of a mother of a sexually abused child (SAC) (3) Experiences of the mother regarding the child's sexual trauma. (4)Mother supports to the child after disclosure and (5) any existing health care policies focusing on support for mothers of sexually abused children. Articles were labeled and categorized according to inclusion criteria. Data gathered was coded according to the themes from each article that qualified for inclusion. Notes on ideas were read and documented as a means of reference. Four (25%) articles reported that mothers: experienced distress of different types and that culture contributes to mothers' inadequate support to the child when the perpetrator is a family member. Five(31%) articles reported that mothers need support systems five (31%) articles also repor ted that support program was needed for mother post child sexual trauma and two 13% supported the idea that sexually abused children should be supported by their mothers. Out of the same articles two (13%) articles reported an existence of support program to mothers.

Erratum to “Rethinking Public Policy Toward Low-Income Fathers in the Child Support Program”

Erratum to “Rethinking Public Policy Toward Low-Income Fathers in the Child Support Program”