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Research on fathering has substantially increased but we still know relatively little about whether and how fathers' own perspectives on their parenting differ across a variety of family situations. We estimate associations between nonresident fathers' family types and nonresident fathers' perceptions of the quality of their parenting and their relationships with their children, using data from the Child Support Noncustodial Parent Employment Demonstration program on lower-income nonresident fathers (n = 5,835) and logistic regressions. High-quality parenting is more likely to be reported by nonresident fathers with multiple-partner fertility and both resident and nonresident children than either those with multiple-partner fertility and only nonresident children or those with single-partner fertility. High-quality relationships with children are more likely to be reported by those with single-partner fertility than those with multiple-partner fertility. These findings suggest the importance of resident children in fathers' perceptions of their parenting and highlight the difficulties of parenting across multiple households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We provide an overview of child support policy in high-income countries, highlighting differences in institutional arrangements, the amount of child support due, and the amount of child support received. We show that the United States expects high levels of child support from nonresident parents when compared to other countries, that noncompliance is a problem across countries, and that most European countries deal with nonpayment of child support by providing guarantees of public support for children and resident parents. The guarantee schemes vary in terms of eligibility and generosity. Throughout, we find that child support policy approaches differ across countries. A key policy implication from this review is that the United States may be expecting too much child support from nonresident parents and that it could consider guaranteeing a modest amount of public support to single-parent households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When a parent has another child with a new partner, a significant effect on parents and children is likely, making factors associated with multiple-partner fertility of interest to policy makers. For single mothers, one potential policy-relevant factor influencing their subsequent fertility with a new partner is child support income. However, the direction and magnitude of any effect is not well-established. This study documents the simple negative relationship between child support and nonmarital fertility with a new partner in our sample of low-income unmarried mothers. We then take advantage of a policy experiment that resulted in randomly assigned differences in child support income to investigate its effects. We find no support for a negative causal relationship between child support receipt and nonmarital fertility with a new partner, instead finding suggestive evidence that mothers with more child support income are slightly more likely to have a subsequent nonmarital birth with a new partner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors offer opinions on nontraditional families in the U.S. The increase in nontraditional families such as families headed by single mothers, families of same-sex marriages and families of divorced couples is said to pose complexities which negatively affect the efficiency of economic and social programs aimed at families in the U.s.

An introduction is presented to articles in this issue including articles on the impact of income on family structure, on the impact on families of men prisoners and on family complexity as experienced by children.

Over time, public policy changes have strengthened the private child support system while reducing access to public support—welfare. Given the especially limited availability of public support, nonresident fathers’ economic contributions through child support can play an important role in helping children to avoid poverty. In this article, the authors review evidence on nonresident fathers’ ability to pay support, provide an overview of the way child support policies affect disadvantaged fathers, and propose new directions for child support policy. The authors argue that the current work-focused safety net, which aims to require and help to enable disadvantaged mothers to work, creates a context in which government should similarly require and help to enable all fathers, even those who are disadvantaged, to work and pay child support. However, reforms are needed to make this a realistic expectation, given many fathers’ limited employment options and complex families. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article investigates how the incorporation of a labor supply response would change the estimates of costs and firs-round effects on poverty and welfare participation under an assured child support benefit. The watershed Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunities Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRA) delegates responsibility from the federal government to the states to design and administer programs for poor children and their families. Assured benefit proposals have attracted the interest of policy makers at both the state and federal levels. The only assured benefits actually tested in this country have been limited versions available only to former Aid to Families With Dependent Children (AFDC) recipients and only in certain states, with the most extensive demonstration conducted in New York. In the absence of labor supply changes, an assured child support benefit will increase the incomes of custodial-parent families, which will decrease the number in poverty and shrink the poverty gap. An assured benefit could also decrease AFDC if the amount of the assured benefit fully offsets AFDC and is larger than the amount of AFDC benefit currently received. An assured benefit might change the number of hours that custodial-parent families work, however, and this could affect estimates of poverty reduction, welfare use, and costs.

The article argues that children's allowance could be instituted in the United States that would decrease poverty and welfare participation while not costing the government any additional expenses. A children's allowance is a universal grant provided to all families, regardless of income, on the basis of the number of children they have. Basically the programs operate the same worldwide. Children's allowance's are usually in the range of 5% to 10% of a country's average gross production wage. Benefits are awarded through monthly checks, weekly checks, or annual tax credits. Eligibility is usually tended to all children through compulsory school age, although in some countries, such as Great Britain, benefits begin with the second child. The policy changes proposed in this article must be carefully delineated because children's allowances with different features would have widely different effects. The proposal is to completely eliminate the income tax deduction for children, and replace it with a universal children's allowance for each unmarried child who is currently eligible to receive the tax deduction.