Policy makers increasingly look, to child support reform to insure the economic welfare of children living apart from one parent. The consequences of child support practices for family processes like visits between parents and children, and for individual attitudes like beliefs about the fairness of awards are largely unknown. Our research examines three important child support issues: (1) custody, child support payments, and visits; (2) perceptions of the fairness of awards; and (3) the accuracy of the data on which our understanding of the child support system is based. In examining the links between family relationships and child support practice, we describe: families with differing custody arrangements; the consequences of custody for payments and additional litigation; the factors that determine payments; the characteristics associated with the time noncustodial parents spend with their children; visiting patterns and the characteristics associated with diverse visiting relationships; and the relationship between paying support and visiting. Whether or not child support is paid depends partly on the perceived fairness of the award. We describe how custodial and noncustodial parents believe awards should respond to factors such as income and personal fairness evaluations. We model these evaluations as a function of absolute standards, such as how much the children need, and relative standards, such as the size of others' awards. We examine the impact of comparisons between the person's award and an average award on ratings of award fairness. We address three measurement issues: the accuracy of reports of payments by custodial and noncustodial parents; the effects of nonresponse bias on behavioral and attitudinal variables for both custodial and noncustodial parents; and the accuracy of the proxy reports parents make about each other. The research uses data from interviews with parents and official court record information for a Wisconsin sample. The proposed research advances understanding of child support issues by: (1) using data from large representative samples of custodial and noncustodial parents and (2) providing a unique combination of detailed information about payments, custody and living arrangements, visits, and child support attitudes. In addition to addressing questions that are crucial to public policy on child support and child welfare, this study speaks to issues in three other areas: kinship, justice and equity, and measurement.
| Seltzer, J A (1998) Father by law: effects of joint legal custody on nonresident fathers' involvement with children. Demography 35:135-46 |
