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Journal Article Using the 1994-1998 waves of the Current Population Survey--Child Support Supplement (N =5,387), the aims of this study are to document child support obligation rates of nonresident fathers, to examine the effect of the obligation rate on child support compliance, and to calculate the trade-off between fathers' financial responsibility and children's well-being, paying particular attention to low-income fathers. The results indicate that low-income fathers have high child support obligation rates, which significantly reduce their child support compliance. Although lowering the obligation rate…
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Journal Article Much of the literature on African American fathers has tended to perpetuate a stereotype of absent and unsupportive parenting. This study employs a life course perspective to investigate the extent and predictors of involvement by young fathers. Data come from the Rochester Youth Development Study, a longitudinal study that has followed a representative sample of urban youth since they were in the seventh or eighth grade. Analysis is based on the young men in the sample who became fathers by age 22, of whom 67% are African American. Results suggest that African American fathers do not differ…
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Journal Article This article assesses the effectiveness of in-hospital paternity establishment, a federal requirement since 1993. The authors avoid biases in previous studies by using a national sample of nonmarital births ( N= 3,254), by including detailed controls for characteristics of unwed mothers and previously unavailable controls for characteristics of fathers, and by estimating reduced form models of the effects of strong paternity establishment regimes. They find that paternity establishment rates are now quite high?69%?and that 6 of 7 paternities are established in the hospital. Even after…
