Understanding child support arrangements in Colombia: A social exchange theory perspective

• Published date: 01 October 2023
• Author: Laura Cuesta,Angela Guarin,Kasey J. Eickmeyer
• Date: 01 October 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12779

RESEARCH

Understanding child support arrangements in

Colombia: A social exchange theory perspective

Laura Cuesta

1

|Angela Guarin

2

|Kasey J. Eickmeyer

3

1

School of Social Work, Rutgers, The State

University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ

2

School of Government, Universidad de los

Andes, Bogot

a, Colombia

3

Center for Policing Equity, New York, NY

Correspondence

Laura Cuesta, School of Social Work, Rutgers,

The State University of New Jersey,

390 George Street, Room 814, New

Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA.

Email: lcuesta@ssw.rutgers.edu

Abstract

Objective: In this research, we examine the characteristics

of custodial-mother families with a child support arrangement

in Colombia and how key concepts from social exchange the-

ory are associated with having these arrangements.

Background: A significant proportion of custodial-mother

families do not receive financial support from noncustodial

fathers. Prior research has identified processes behind low

rates of child support receipt, but little is known about

which factors determine whether separated parents make a

child support arrangement in the first place, especially in

less affluent countries.

Methods: Using data on custodial mothers interviewed in

the Colombian Longitudinal Survey, we used descriptive

statistics to examine the characteristics of custodial

mothers with a child support arrangement and estimated

logistic regression models to examine how economic

dependence and commitment before separation are associ-

ated with having a child support arrangement.

Results: Only 35.7% of custodial-mother families had a child

support arrangement, typically a private one. Mothers with

an arrangement were more socioeconomically advantaged

than those who did not have one. Only economic indepen-

dence factors were significantly associated with having an

arrangement, and a custodial mother’s economic indepen-

dence discouraged having any child support arrangement.

Conclusion: Economic factors may bear more weight than

interpersonal ties in decisions to pursue a child support

arrangement in Colombia.

Implications: An assessment of the costs associated with

pursuing a child support arrangement in Colombia is an

important step to improve the child support system’s out-

reach to custodial mothers, current programming, and

type of services provided at different stages of the process.

Received: 21 December 2021Revised: 22 July 2022Accepted: 7 August 2022

DOI: 10.1111/fare.12779

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits

use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or

adaptations are made.

© 2022 The Authors. Family Relations published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of National Council on Family Relations.

Family Relations. 2023;72:1625–1642. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare 1625

Child support, which is a monetary transfer from a noncustodial parent to a custodial parent to

assist with the cost of raising children after a union dissolution, is an important source of

income for the rising share of children living in custodial-parent families (i.e., single-parent fam-

ilies, some of which can also include a stepparent), and it is critical for those children at risk of

experiencing poverty (Cancian & Meyer, 2018; Hakovirta, 2011). Yet in a wide range of coun-

tries a significant proportion of custodial-parent families, largely custodial-mother families

(Grall, 2020; Monte, 2019), do not receive financial support from noncustodial fathers

(Cuesta & Meyer, 2012; Ríos-Salas & Meyer, 2014). Although prior research has identified pro-

cesses associated with low rates of child support receipt (Cancian & Meyer, 2004; Geller

et al., 2011), we know little about which factors encourage parents in setting a child support

arrangement in the first place, especially in middle- and low-income countries.

Agreements about how much each parent should contribute to their children’s expenditures

are typically a component of divorce proceedings, and in countries where marriage is frequent,

this may be a common pathway toward setting child support arrangements. However, under-

standing the equivalent process among unmarried parents is especially crucial in countries in

which nonmarital births and cohabitation are common and where separated parents may be

making decisions about custody, child support, and visitation outside of a family court. This is

the case in Colombia, where the vast majority of children are born to unmarried parents

(Wilcox et al., 2019) and a large proportion of children live in cohabiting-couple families

(Cuesta et al., 2017). As nonmarital childbearing and cohabitation become more common

worldwide, the case of Colombia may be relevant for understanding child support arrangements

in other countries.

We frame the factors that may encourage or hinder child support arrangements within

social exchange theory, a widely used theory of family decision-making processes (Allen &

Hawkins, 2017; Braver et al., 1993; Donovan & Jackson, 1990). Social exchange theory posits

that in all social exchanges, individuals seek an outcome that maximizes rewards and minimizes

costs and that these exchanges are dependent on the preexisting characteristics of one party’s

relationship to another (Allen & Hawkins, 2017). We expect this theory to be especially relevant

in framing the process of pursuing a child support arrangement in Colombia, where the inter-

personal, monetary, and time costs associated with pursuing these arrangements may be high

for the predominately unmarried mothers but where the benefits are crucial to keeping these

mothers and their children out of poverty (Cuesta & Meyer, 2014).

We use the 2010, 2013, and 2016 waves of the Colombian Longitudinal Survey (ELCA, for

its acronym in Spanish), to answer the following questions: (a) What are the characteristics of

custodial mothers with a child support arrangement? and (b) Among mothers who recently

became custodial mothers, how are economic dependence and commitment, before separation,

associated with having a child support arrangement? To examine the characteristics of custodial

mothers with a child support arrangement, we created a sample of custodial mothers inter-

viewed in the 2013 wave of ELCA, which is the first year ELCA included questions about child

support arrangements. We used this sample to calculate weighted descriptive statistics of child

support outcomes and individual and family characteristics. To examine how economic depen-

dence and commitment before separation are associated with having a child support arrange-

ment, we created a sample of mothers who were interviewed in at least two of the three waves

of ELCA included in this study and who had separated from the biological father of their

child(ren) by the last wave of ELCA in which they were interviewed. We use this sample to con-

duct a series of multivariate analyses where having a child support arrangement is regressed on

key measures of economic dependence and commitment.

There are three gaps in the literature that we address in this study. First, we examine child

support arrangements in Colombia, an upper middle-income country where the vast majority

of children live with unmarried parents. This is an important context to examine the process of

making child support arrangements because many parents are not necessarily required to do so

1626 FAMILY RELATIONS