This chapter reports on in-depth interviews with 41 current and recent TANF recipients that discussed the various contributions that fathers make to their children, their strengths and limitations as fathers, and the benefits and challenges of their varying levels of participation in family life. It then explores whether mothers’ voices can inform policy options. 1 table and numerous references.
Drawing on data from 44 African American low-income fathers and interviews with three African American fathers conducted in the wake of Wisconsin’s effort to reduce the welfare rolls, this chapter examines how some men push to meet the basic financial and even emotional needs of their children. Findings indicate child support enforcement was a source of frustration and pain. 26 references.
Brief
Chapter 1. Deadbeat Dad or Just Dead Broke; Chapter 2. What Do You Want, Really?; Chapter 3. How Child Support Proceedings Begin; Chapter 4. Going to Court; Chapter 5. Paternity; Chapter 6. Getting Organized; Chapter 7. About Child Support; Chapter 8. The Child Support Hearing; Chapter 9. After the Hearing; Chapter 10. Changing the Child Support Order; Chapater 11. What if I Don't Pay?; Chapter 12. Visitation Rights; Chapter 13. Going for Custody; Chapter 14. Going to Trial; Chapter 15. The Appeal; Chapter 16. After Custody; Chapter 17. Conclusion.
There has been a growing national emphasis over recent years on increasingfathers' (and particularly, noncustodial fathers') involvement with theirfamilies, an emphasis that focuses on everything from financial supportto emotional nurture. However, it has become apparent that low-incomenoncustodial fathers have been affected very differently by these effortsthan have been wealthier fathers. Many of the recent legislative and policyinitiatives have been directed at augmenting noncustodial fathers' financialsupport of their children. For fathers whose children receive (or havereceived) public…
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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…
Three waves of panel data are used to examine the relationship between child support payments and fathers' contact with their nonmarital children. Cross-lagged effects models are incorporated to identify the direction of causality between these two behaviors. Controlling for the lagged term and a rich set of individual characteristics eliminates the relationship between paying formal support and whether fathers see their children, although a strong reciprocal relationship remains between paying any support (formal or informal) and contact. For the subgroup of fathers who consistently see…
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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…
