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Child support in the United States used to be straightforward: mothers were given custody of the children, and fathers, who normally had higher incomes, were ordered to pay child support. The situation may be growing more and more complex, however, as men increasingly receive custody of their children. Daniel R. Meyer, an IRP affiliate, and Steven Garasky, an economist at Iowa State University, have examined current trends in male custody and find that the reality differs in many respects from the common conceptions about custodial fathers. This article is based on their paper exploring the…
Men are increasingly receiving custody of their children, and single-father families with children are growing at a faster rate than even single-mother families. However, many observers still believe that custodial fathers are small in number. Indeed, there are a number of myths concerning custodial fathers, myths that are dispelled by empirical data. The authors examine data from the Current Population Survey, the Survey of Income and Program Participation, and Wisconsin court records, and determine that many assumptions about custodial fathers are simply not true. Many child support…
This report explores the circumstances and opinions of 71 parents who were interviewed to help inform a project aimed at increasing the employment and earnings of disadvantaged fathers, and child support payments made by them. That project, the Parents' Fair Share Demonstration (PFS), tackles a social problem that is crucially linked to child poverty in the United States: the failure of noncustodial parents -- most of whom are fathers -- to contribute financially to their children's support. Through a unique combination of job training, personal support, and incentives, Parents' Fair Share…
