IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/anname/v702y2022i1p78-96.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Nonresident Fathers and the Economic Precarity of Their Children

Author

Listed:
  • Lenna Nepomnyaschy
  • Margaret Thomas
  • Alex Haralampoudis
  • Huiying Jin

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between nonresident fathers and their children’s economic precarity. We use a racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse sample of children in large U.S. cities and consider a comprehensive set of measures of the involvement of nonresident fathers in their lives. We evaluate both voluntary and involuntary (court-ordered child support) involvement of fathers, and we look at material hardship and income-to-poverty ratio as measures of children’s economic precarity. We find that only high levels of formal child support have a protective effect on children’s economic well-being, while fathers’ voluntary involvement (experienced by 70 percent of children) has a more consistent protective effect. Overall, policies to reduce children’s economic precarity need to focus on improving nonresident fathers’ ability to be involved with and contribute to their children, as well as on direct assistance to custodial mother families.

Suggested Citation

  • Lenna Nepomnyaschy & Margaret Thomas & Alex Haralampoudis & Huiying Jin, 2022. "Nonresident Fathers and the Economic Precarity of Their Children," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 702(1), pages 78-96, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:702:y:2022:i:1:p:78-96
    DOI: 10.1177/00027162221119348
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00027162221119348
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/00027162221119348?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yoonsook Ha & Maria Cancian & Daniel R. Meyer, 2018. "Child Support and Income Inequality," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 10(2), pages 147-158, June.
    2. Cuesta, Laura & Meyer, Daniel R., 2018. "Child poverty and child support policy: A comparative analysis of Colombia and the United States," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 143-153.
    3. Steven Garasky & Susan Stewart, 2007. "Evidence of the Effectiveness of Child Support and Visitation: Examining Food Insecurity among Children with Nonresident Fathers," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 105-121, March.
    4. Reichman, Nancy E. & Teitler, Julien O. & Garfinkel, Irwin & McLanahan, Sara S., 2001. "Fragile Families: sample and design," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(4-5), pages 303-326.
    5. 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.
    6. Harry J. Holzer & Paul Offner & Elaine Sorensen, 2005. "Declining employment among young black less-educated men: The role of incarceration and child support," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(2), pages 329-350.
    7. Terry-Ann Craigie, 2012. "Informal Child Support Contributions in Black Female-Headed Families," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 39(2), pages 259-265, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mia Hakovirta & Laura Cuesta & Mari Haapanen & Daniel R. Meyer, 2022. "Child Support Policy across High-Income Countries: Similar Problems, Different Approaches," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 702(1), pages 97-111, July.

    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. Ronald B. Mincy & Serena Klempin & Heather Schmidt, 2011. "Income Support Policies for Low-Income Men and Noncustodial Fathers: Tax and Transfer Programs," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 635(1), pages 240-261, May.
    2. repec:pri:crcwel:wp10-12-ff is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Lenna Nepomnyaschy & Irwin Garfinkel, 2010. "Fathers' Involvement with Their Nonresident Children and Material Hardship," Working Papers 1271, Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing..
    4. Schaubert, Marianna, 2018. "Behavioral Response of Non-Resident Parents to Child Support Obligations: Evidence From SOEP," EconStor Preprints 203675, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    5. Schaubert, Marianna, 2022. "Do courts know how to incentivize? Behavioral response of non-resident parents to child support obligations," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    6. Lindsey Rose Bullinger, 2021. "Child Support and the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid Expansions," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(1), pages 42-77, January.
    7. repec:pri:crcwel:wp06-09-ff is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Sandra Hofferth & Nicole Forry & H. Peters, 2010. "Child Support, Father–Child Contact, and Preteens’ Involvement with Nonresidential Fathers: Racial/Ethnic Differences," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 31(1), pages 14-32, March.
    9. Rossin-Slater, Maya & Wüst, Miriam, 2018. "Parental responses to child support obligations: Evidence from administrative data," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 183-196.
    10. Lenna Nepomnyaschy & Irwin Garfinkel, 2009. "Child Support Enforcement and Fathers' Contributions to Their Nonmarital Children," Working Papers 909, Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing..
    11. Schneider, William, 2017. "Single mothers, the role of fathers, and the risk for child maltreatment," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 81-93.
    12. Robynn Cox & Sally Wallace, 2013. "The Impact of Incarceration on Food Insecurity among Households with Children," Working Papers 1448, Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing..
    13. Huang, Chien-Chung & Han, Ke-Qing, 2012. "Child support enforcement in the United States: Has policy made a difference?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 622-627.
    14. Ronald Mincy & Natasha Cabrera & Elia De La Cruz Toledo & Hyunjoon Um, 2018. "The long-reach of nonresident fathers’ financial support on children’s skills in fragile families : Parental investments, family processes, and children’s language skills," Working Papers wp18-07-ff, Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing..
    15. repec:pri:crcwel:wp12-10-ff is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Kristin Mammen, 2020. "Children’s Gender and Investments from Nonresident Fathers," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 41(2), pages 332-349, June.
    17. Amanda Geller & Irwin Garfinkel & Bruce Western, 2011. "Paternal Incarceration and Support for Children in Fragile Families," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 48(1), pages 25-47, February.
    18. Fisher, Hayley, 2015. "The Impact of Child Support Receipt on Household Income and Labour Supply," Working Papers 2015-20, University of Sydney, School of Economics.
    19. repec:pri:crcwel:wp08-06-ff is not listed on IDEAS
    20. repec:pri:crcwel:wp13-05-ff is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Tracey, Marlon R. & Polachek, Solomon W., 2018. "If looks could heal: Child health and paternal investment," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 179-190.
    22. Daphne Hernandez & Kathleen Ziol-Guest, 2009. "Income Volatility and Family Structure Patterns: Association with Stability and Change in Food Stamp Program Participation," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 30(4), pages 357-371, December.
    23. McLeod, Branden A. & Gottlieb, Aaron, 2018. "Examining the relationship between incarceration and child support arrears among low-income fathers," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 1-9.
    24. Russell, Luke T. & Ganong, Lawrence & Schramm, David G. & Warzinik, Kelly & Roach, Andrea & Doubledee, Rachael, 2016. "A comparison of intergovernmental and private agency collection of child support arrears," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 166-173.
    25. Hayley Fisher, 2017. "The Impact of Child Support on the Household Income and Labour Supply of Payee Lone Mothers," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 93(301), pages 189-213, June.

    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:sae:anname:v:702:y:2022:i:1:p:78-96. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.