Child Support: Who Bears the Burden?*

Abstract

Using a more comprehensive accounting than previous studies, we examined the economic impact of child support orders on residential mothers and children compared to nonresidential fathers and how that impact differed across income levels. With the inclusion of child support and other expenses associated with raising children, the well-being of mothers and children fell by 37% compared to a decline of 16% for nonresident fathers, relative to their standard of living while intact. We also found significant differences in the child support obligation rate across income levels with low-and middle-income fathers facing much greater child support obligations than high-income fathers. Additionally, although the poverty rates of low-income fathers were high at 28%, those for low-income mothers and children were almost 3-fold higher at 73%.

Child Support: Responsible Fatherhood and the Quid Pro Quo

“…One study analyzing administrative data in eight sites between 1998 and 2000 suggests that nonresident fathers with the lowest income levels were given child support orders requiring between 21 and 61 percent of monthly earnings, whereas order amounts for higher earners ranged from 8 to 21 percent of their monthly earnings . Studies in Washington (Stirling and Aldrich 2008) and Wisconsin (Meyer, Ha, and Hu 2008) also show that lowincome fathers owe higher, sometimes substantially higher, percentages of their income in child support. 5 In addition to explicit modifications of the guidelines for low-income nonresident parents, orders also vary due to administrative procedures and implementation challenges.…”

“…In good part because of data limitations, there is a scarcity of research that simultaneously considers the effect of child support on both resident parent and nonresident parent poverty. However, the available evidence suggests that potential child support would do more to reduce poverty among poor single-mother families than to increase poverty among nonresident fathers (Bartfeld 2000;Cancian and Meyer 2004;Meyer 1998;Stirling and Aldrich 2008).…”

The Regularity of Child Support and Its Contribution to the Regularity of Income

“…Some studies examine the extent to which child support contributes to family income, scrutinizing the effect of child support on poverty and income inequality among custodial-mother families (Meyer and Hu 1999;Bartfeld 2000;Sorensen and Zibman 2000;Bartfeld and Meyer 2001;Park et al 2005;Cancian and Meyer 2006;Stirling and Aldrich 2008). These studies provide insights into child support's role in the overall economic well-being of custodial families.…”

Lapsen elatus, vanhempien toimeentulo ja köyhyys

“…Lapsiköyhyys koh distuu usein yksinhuoltajakotitalouksiin (Karvonen & Salmi 2016), jotka ovat pääasiassa äidin ja lapsen muodostamia perheitä (SVT 2019). Yksinhuoltajakotitalouksien toimeentuloriskiä voi kuitenkin lieventää se, jos isät jakavat elatusvastuuta lapsista (Stirling & Aldrich 2008) esimerkiksi maksamalla elatusapua. Elatusavulla tarkoitetaan tyypillisesti säännöllistä rahallista maksusuo-ritusta, jolla lapsen toinen vanhempi osallistuu toisessa kotitaloudessa asuvan lapsen taloudelliseen huolenpitoon (Skinner ym.…”