Child Support: Who Bears the Burden?*

• Author: Kate Stirling,Tom Aldrich
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3729.2008.00507.x
• Published date: 01 July 2008
• Date: 01 July 2008

Child Support: Who Bears the Burden?*

Kate Stirling Tom Aldrich**

Abstract: Using a more comprehensive accounting than previous studies, we examined the economic impact of child

support orders on residential mothers and children compared to nonresidential fathers and how that impact differed

across income levels. With the inclusion of child support and other expenses associated with raising children, the

well-being of mothers and children fell by 37% compared to a decline of 16% for nonresident fathers, relative to

their standard of living while intact. We also found significant differences in the child support obligation rate across

income levels with low- and middle-income fathers facing much greater child support obligations than high-income

fathers. Additionally, although the poverty rates of low-income fathers were high at 28%, those for low-income

mothers and children were almost 3-fold higher at 73%.

Key Words: child support order, economic well-being, low-income fathers, resident mothers.

Nationwide inequity and inadequacy of child sup-

port was documented by researchers and acknowl-

edged by policymakers nearly three decades ago,

leading to a consensus that unless concerted public

policy efforts were undertaken, the growing number

of children in single-parent families faced serious

economic risk in the short run as well as imperiled

futures in the long run. These concerns, coupled

with the expectation that increased child support

from nonresidential parents would lessen the

demands on the public purse, led to the establish-

ment of Title IV-D of the Social Security Act in

1975, the Child Support Enforcement Amendments

of 1984, and the Family Support Act of 1988. Addi-

tionally, the Personal Responsibility and Work

Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (informally

known as the Welfare Reform Act) included ele-

ments designed to improve child support payments

(Garfinkel, McLanahan, Meyer, & Seltzer, 1998;

Pirog & Ziol-Guest, 2006). Although the first wave

of child support research emphasized the economic

straits of residential mothers and children, more

recently social scientists have begun to examine child

support payments from the vantage point of the

impact on fathers, particularly low-income fathers

(Garfinkel, McLanahan, Meyer, et al., 1998; Huang,

Mincy, & Garfinkel, 2005; Sorensen & Oliver,

2002; Sorensen & Zibman, 2001). Additionally,

concerns about unfair child support payments led to

the establishment of many fathers’ rights groups

across the country who have lobbied state legisla-

tures to reconsider these obligations. Thus, policy-

makers appear to face a troubling trade-off: improving

the child support process to enhance the economic

well-being of mothers and children may place fathers

at risk.

To date, however, policymakers have lacked an

explicit enunciation of the terms of this trade-off

between residential and nonresidential households.

To aid policymakers and other researchers, this arti-

cle sought to empirically estimate and examine the

terms of that trade-off. Specifically, this article

explores how child support orders affect the eco-

nomic well-being of residential households com-

pared to the orders’ impact on nonresidential

households. In doing so, this study develops a more

complete accounting than previous studies of the

economic resources available to residential and non-

residential households to meet their needs. Because

of policy concerns regarding low-income fathers, as

*The authors wish to express their appreciation for the thorough and thoughtful comments and suggestions of three anonymous reviewers and the Editor.

**Kate Stirling is a professor in the Economics Department at the University of Puget Sound, 1500 N Warner, Tacoma, WA 98416 (stirling@ups.edu). Tom Aldrich

is a research investigator in the Department of Social and Health Services in Washington State, Olympia, WA 98504 (aldritc@dshs.wa.gov).

Family Relations, 57 (July 2008), 376–389. Blackwell Publishing.

Copyright 2008 by the National Council on Family Relations.