IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/poprpr/v33y2014i6p817-840.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Child Support in Immigrant Families

Author

Listed:
  • Lenna Nepomnyaschy
  • Louis Donnelly

Abstract

In this study, we use nationally representative data from the U.S. Current Population Survey-Child Support Supplement (N = 28,047) to examine differences in nonresident fathers’ material contributions between children of native and foreign-born mothers. We focus on contributions provided through the formal child support system (whether the mother has a child support agreement and the amount received), as well as support provided informally (the amount of informal cash and whether she receives any in-kind support). We control for a variety of individual and household characteristics, including whether the nonresident father lives in a different state or in a different country. We find that foreign-born mothers are much less likely to have a child support agreement than native-born mothers, but have similar amounts of formal support, once an agreement is in place. Compared to native-born mothers, foreign-born mothers are also much less likely to receive in-kind support, but this difference is completely explained by fathers’ distance from the child. Foreign-born mothers do not differ at all on the amount of informal cash support received from fathers. Nonresident fathers’ residence outside the U.S. is an important mechanism through which nativity affects the likelihood of having a child support order and receiving any in-kind support, but not the amount of formal support (given an order) or the amount of informal cash support. Aggregate comparisons mask important differences within the foreign-born group by mothers’ and children’s citizenship status, years in the U.S., and region of origin. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Lenna Nepomnyaschy & Louis Donnelly, 2014. "Child Support in Immigrant Families," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 33(6), pages 817-840, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:poprpr:v:33:y:2014:i:6:p:817-840
    DOI: 10.1007/s11113-014-9330-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11113-014-9330-0
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11113-014-9330-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Grossbard,Shoshana A. (ed.), 2003. "Marriage and the Economy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521891431, January.
    2. Lenna Nepomnyaschy, 2007. "Child support and father-child contact: Testing reciprocal pathways," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 44(1), pages 93-112, February.
    3. Grossbard,Shoshana A. (ed.), 2003. "Marriage and the Economy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521814546, January.
    4. Borjas, George J., 2011. "Poverty and Program Participation among Immigrant Children," Scholarly Articles 8052147, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bertocchi, Graziella & Brunetti, Marianna & Torricelli, Costanza, 2014. "Who holds the purse strings within the household? The determinants of intra-family decision making," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 65-86.
    2. Bertocchi, Graziella & Brunetti, Marianna & Torricelli, Costanza, 2011. "Marriage and other risky assets: A portfolio approach," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 2902-2915, November.
    3. Susanne Elsas, 2016. "Income Sharing within Households: Evidence from Data on Financial Satisfaction," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 5(3), pages 1-16, September.
    4. repec:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2005-046 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Roberto Bonilla & Francis Kiraly & John Wildman, 2022. "Marriage premium with productivity heterogeneity," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(1), pages 317-328, January.
    6. San Vicente Portes, Luis & Atal, Vidya & Juárez Torres, Miriam, 2019. "From households to national statistics: Macroeconomic effects of Women's empowerment," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 286-294.
    7. Gale, William & Pence, Karen, 2006. "Are Successive Generations Getting Wealthier, and If So, Why?Evidence from the 1990s," MPRA Paper 55502, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Libertad González & Berkay Özcan, 2013. "The Risk of Divorce and Household Saving Behavior," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 48(2), pages 404-434.
    9. Jens Bonke & Hans Uldall-Poulsen, 2007. "Why do families actually pool their income? Evidence from Denmark," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 5(2), pages 113-128, June.
    10. Stéphane Mechoulan, 2006. "Divorce Laws and the Structure of the American Family," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 35(1), pages 143-174, January.
    11. Tansel Yilmazer & Angela Lyons, 2010. "Marriage and the Allocation of Assets in Women’s Defined Contribution Plans," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 31(2), pages 121-137, June.
    12. Diana Ka-Yan Mok, 2005. "The Life Stages and Housing Decisions of Young Households: An Insider Perspective," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 37(12), pages 2121-2146, December.
    13. Laura Blow & Martin Browning & Mette Ejrnæs, 2009. "Marriage and Consumption," CAM Working Papers 2009-07, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. Centre for Applied Microeconometrics.
    14. Mariano Rojas, 2010. "Intra-Household Arrangements and Economic Satisfaction," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 11(2), pages 225-241, April.
    15. Reiter-Gavish, Liron & Qadan, Mahmoud & Yagil, Joseph, 2021. "Financial advice: Who Exactly Follows It?," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(3), pages 244-258.
    16. John Fitzgerald & David Ribar, 2004. "Welfare reform and female headship," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 41(2), pages 189-212, May.
    17. Magdalena M. Muszynska, 2006. "Woman’s employment and union disruption in a changing socio-economic context: the case of Russia," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2006-027, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    18. Marcel Fafchamps & Agnes R. Quisumbing & IFPRI, 2006. "Household Formation and Marriage Markets," Economics Series Working Papers GPRG-WPS-039, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    19. Robert A. Pollak, 2005. "Bargaining Power in Marriage: Earnings, Wage Rates and Household Production," NBER Working Papers 11239, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Yunhee Chang & Ki Lee, 2006. "Household Debt and Marital Instability: Evidence from the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 27(4), pages 675-691, December.
    21. Lucie Schmidt & Purvi Sevak, 2006. "Gender, Marriage, And Asset Accumulation In The United States," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1-2), pages 139-166.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:poprpr:v:33:y:2014:i:6:p:817-840. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.