Indebted Relationships: Child Support Arrears and Nonresident Fathers' Involvement With Children

• Author: Kimberly J. Turner,Maureen R. Waller
• Date: 01 February 2017
• Published date: 01 February 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12361

K J. T Child Trends

M R. W Cornell University∗

Indebted Relationships: Child Support Arrears and

Nonresident Fathers’ Involvement With Children

Low-income, nonresident fathers owe a dispro-

portionate amount of child support arrears, cre-

ating potential challenges for these fathers and

their family relationships. This article uses medi-

ation analysis to provide new evidence about

how and why child support debt is related to

paternal involvement using information from

1,017 nonresident fathers in the Fragile Fam-

ilies Study. Results show that child support

arrears are associated with nonresident fathers

having signicantly less contact with children,

being less engaged with them in daily activi-

ties, and providing less frequent in-kind support

9 years after the birth. This negative association

between child support debt and father involve-

ment is most strongly and consistently mediated

by the quality of the relationship between the

biological parents. Although child support poli-

cies are designed to facilitate fathers’ economic

and emotional support, these results suggest that

the accruement of child support debt may serve

as an important barrier to father involvement.

As part of recent reform efforts, the federal

Ofce of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE)

Child Trends, 7315 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite 1200 W,

Bethesda, MD 20814 (kturner@childtrends.org).

∗Department of Policy Analysis and Management, 257

MVR Hall, Cornell University,Ithaca, NY 14853.

This article was edited by Kelly Raley.

Key Words: child support, fathers, Fragile Families and

Child Wellbeing Study, nonresidential parents, parental

involvement.

has identied several family-centered policies

aimed at improving the reliability of child

support payments by low-income, noncustodial

parents (NCPs). Some family-centered child

support reforms aim to improve child support

payments by increasing paternal engagement.

For example, new proposals at the federal

level would require states to establish visi-

tation and access in all initial child support

orders in hope of creating a “double win” for

children who would benet from improved

relationships with their fathers and child support

collections (U.S. Department of Health and

Human Services, 2014). Programs to promote

responsible fatherhood have also sought to help

low-income fathers overcome economic barriers

in meeting their child support obligations while

building stronger relationships with children

(Solomon-Fears, Smith, & Berry, 2012). Many

nonresident fathers have low levels of involve-

ment (Cheadle, Amato, & King, 2010), and

these initiatives are informed by research indi-

cating a positive link between paternal contact

and support (Nepomnyaschy, 2007).

Other recent family-centered initiatives have

focused on improving child support outcomes

by preventing low-income NCPs from accruing

large child support debts. Since 1975, total child

support arrears have accumulated to more than

$114.5 billion (U.S. Department of Health and

Human Services, Administration for Children

and Families, Ofce of Child Support Enforce-

ment, 2013). Research suggests that about one

quarter of NCPs in the child support program

have limited ability to pay and that low-income

fathers owe a disproportionate amount of the

24 Journal of Marriage and Family 79 (February 2017): 24–43

DOI:10.1111/jomf.12361

Child Support Arrears and Father Involvement 25

outstanding child support arrears (U.S. Depart-

ment of Health and Human Services, 2014).

Sorensen, Sousa, and Schaner’s (2007) study of

child support arrears in nine large states shows

that 70% of arrears are owed by obligors who

had no reported income or incomes of less than

$10,000.

In addition to being largely uncollectible,

there is growing concern that child support

arrears may have unintended consequences

for low-income fathers and their family rela-

tionships. Recent studies have documented

the negative impact of child support arrears on

fathers’ employment and child support payments

(Cancian, Heinrich, & Chung, 2013; Miller &

Mincy, 2012). Some qualitative and evalua-

tion evidence further suggests that low-income

men with high levels of child support debt

face increased challenges in establishing and

maintaining relationships with custodial moth-

ers and children (Martinson & Nightingale,

2008). Although the OCSE has recognized the

importance of preventing nonresident fathers

from both accruing child support arrears and

disengaging from their children, the potential

link between child support arrears and pater-

nal involvement has not been examined in a

large, national data set. Moreover, we have

little understanding of the mechanisms through

which arrears may weaken family relationships.

Using information from the Fragile Families

and Child Wellbeing Study, which includes rep-

resentative data on births in large urban areas,

the primary goal of this article is to examine

whether there is a negative connection between

child support arrears and nonresident fathers’

involvement with children. A secondary goal of

this article is to investigate key mediators, sug-

gested in the literature, which help explain why

child support arrears might be associated with

lower levels of father involvement 9 years after

their child’s birth.

Research examining child support arrears has

either relied on administrative data with lim-

ited information on family relationships or has

used custodial mothers’ reports of child support

arrears, which may be less reliable than those

of the nonresident father. Other studies hypothe-

sizing a connection between child support debt

and paternal involvement have not tested this

relationship using a national data set. To empir-

ically examine whether an association between

arrears and paternal involvement exists, we take

advantage of the Year9 Fragile Families Survey,

which is the rst wave of the study that includes

direct reports from a large sample of nonresident

fathers on their own child support debt as well

as rich information about fathers’ characteris-

tics and family relationships. Wealso help ll an

important gap in the literature about the role of

child support arrears in low-income families by

exploring multiple pathways—fathers’ employ-

ment, mental health, and relationship with the

mother—through which child support arrears

could hinder paternal involvement.

Our analysis provides the rst multilayered,

descriptive portrait of how and why child sup-

port debt may be linked to fathering in a racially

diverse sample of mostly disadvantaged fathers

who have been highly impacted by child sup-

port enforcement policy. A central purpose of

the Fragile Families Survey was to include direct

reports from disadvantaged fathers on their own

experiences. Although coverage and response

rates of low-income fathers in the Fragile Fam-

ilies Survey surpass those of many other data

sets, the use of the father sample has often

been limited because of concerns about selectiv-

ity relative to the mother sample. Analyses that

rely on the mother sample, however, may over-

look equally compelling methodological con-

cerns about how proxy reports may compromise

measurement validity (Pleck & Masciadrelli,

2004). The longitudinal design of the study

makes it possible to address issues of selection

by controlling for father involvement and mech-

anisms at an earlier time period. Weare also able

to test the robustness of our results using moth-

ers’ reports of arrears at Year 5 and reports of

father involvement provided by both parents.

B

Child Support Arrears and Low-Income Fathers

As more information on noncustodial fathers’

economic characteristics has become available,

academic and policy discussions have recog-

nized a distinction between “deadbroke” dads

who are unable to meet their child support obli-

gations and “deadbeat” dads who are able to

pay but refuse to do so (U.S. Department of

Health and Human Services, Ofce of Inspec-

tor General, 2000, p. 8). The child support

enforcement program has developed a number

of tools to improve collection among NCPs

who have the ability to meet their child support

obligations, such as income withholding, tax