The NICHD-funded project, Non-Custodial Parents: Parents Without Children (MH-19383), on which the present P.I.'s are investigators, was an attempt to fill the gap in knowledge about divorcing fathers (non-custodial parents or NCPs). Its primary focus was to gather data to explore the NCP's motivations for two behaviors with great impact on the mental health of the mother and child: the payment of child support, and the frequency and emotional quality of the visiting relationship with the child. The project collected a unique data set, which involved longitudinal questioning of both mothers and fathers, as well as children, over a four year period, beginning before the divorce was finalized. The sample contains data from 378 families, and has little evidence of self-selection bias and very limited attrition. The present proposal is a Competing Continuation application for the NCP Project that requests an additional 15 months of support. It proposes a test of a model developed by the P.l.'s, based on Social Exchange theory, that identifies predictors of the NCP's child support payment and post-divorce visitation. The model proposes that NCP's involvement, in terms of both child support payment and visitation, increases with NCP's perception of the rewards of this involvement, and decreases with his perception of its costs. Analyses of these data indicated ample evidence of response biases in the self-reports of divorced parents concerning child support paid. Fathers reported paying substantially more than mothers reported receiving. This finding suggests caution concerning the validity of past literature concerning child support, which is based almost exclusively on mother's report. The present application thus proposes to study a subgroup for whom an accurate archival record of payment is available, as well as to use this subgroup to test a model that predicts the extent of over- (by NCPs) or under-(by CPs) reporting of child support paid. This model will then be used to study the generalization of response biases across other divorce topics. Finally, is the proposal to use this unique data set in subsidiary analyses, to explore in detail a variety of additional matters of great importance to family researchers, divorce professionals, and policy-makers.
| Gunnoe, M L; Braver, S L (2001) The effects of joint legal custody on mothers, fathers, and children controlling for factors that predispose a sole maternal versus joint legal award. Law Hum Behav 25:25-43 |
| Dion, M R; Braver, S L; Wolchik, S A et al. (1997) Alcohol abuse and psychopathic deviance in noncustodial parents as predictors of child-support payment and visitation. Am J Orthopsychiatry 67:70-9 |
| Braver, S H; Wolchik, S A; Sandler, I N et al. (1991) Frequency of visitation by divorced fathers: differences in reports by fathers and mothers. Am J Orthopsychiatry 61:448-54 |
