Child Support Enforcement and Fathers’ Contributions to Their Nonmarital Children

Lenna Nepomnyaschy · Irwin Garfinkel

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Family Dynamics and Relationships Family and Matrimonial Law Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics

Abstract

This study examines the total package of child support that mothers receive from the nonresident fathers of their children, by focusing on three components of total support: formal cash, informal cash, and in-kind support. Using the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, this article considers how contributions change over time and the effects of child support enforcement on these contributions. Findings suggest that total cash support received drops precipitously over the first 15 months of living apart (as informal support drops off) and then increases slightly after 45 months (as the increase in formal support overtakes the decrease in informal support). While the study finds no effect of enforcement on total support received in the first 5 years after a nonmarital birth, the substantial differences in total cash support received by the length of time that parents have not been cohabiting suggest that strong enforcement may be efficacious over time.

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References

1991A Treatise on the Family 2001Fragile Families: sample and design 1997Making ends meet: how single mothers survive welfare and low-wage work 2004Union formation in fragile families 1989National Estimates of Cohabitation 1983The Life Course of Children of Divorce: Marital Disruption and Parental Contact 2005Measuring and Modeling Cohabitation: New Perspectives From Qualitative Data 1985Children as Collective Goods and Divorce Settlements

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2011Paternal Incarceration and Support for Children in Fragile Families 2011The Evolution of Family Complexity from the Perspective of Nonmarital Children 2011Predictors of supportive coparenting after relationship dissolution among at-risk parents.2011Maternal re-partnering and new-partner fertility: Associations with nonresident father investments in children 2013Nonresident Fathers’ Financial Support, Informal Instrumental Support, Mothers’ Parenting, and Child Development in Single-Mother Families With Low Income

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