Citation URL: http://www.urban.org/ArielHalpern

While the proportion of single mothers who receive child support remains largely unchanged since 1976, changes in child support enforcement have significantly improved collection efforts. A dramatic increase in the number of never-married mothers masks this progress. This brief reveals a four-fold increase in the child support receipt rate among never-married

This brief argues that welfare reform has not gone far enough to encourage two-parent families and responsible fatherhood. In fact, some of its own policies discourage this behavior. Furthermore, many poor families with young children are already struggling to stay together against the odds. Eventually, the majority of these families break up. By intervening early, government could help these "fragile families" scale the most common barriers to remaining intact over the long haul.

This paper finds that several tools of the child support enforcement system - the $50 pass-through, the tax intercept program, and presumptive guidelines - had a significantly positive effect on child support receipt among both never-married and previously married single mothers. Immediate wage withholding also had a significantly positive impact on child support among previously married mothers on AFDC. The in-hospital paternity establishment program had a significantly positive effect on child support among never-married mothers not on AFDC. This paper examines 21 years of data from the Current Population Survey supplemented with detailed information on state child support policies.

Among children living with single mothers, those born outside of marriage are 1.7 times more likely to be poor than are those born to married parents, even after controlling for differences in such factors as mother's education and work status. As such, a continued policy focus on children born to unmarried mothers is warranted.

Most American children live in two-parent families, whether biological or adoptive. Many children, however, do not live with both of their biological parents. Divorce and separation, births outside of marriage, remarriages, and child abuse or neglect are among the reasons these children spend at least part of their childhood with only one or neither biological parent.

Between 1978 and 1996, the number of babies born to unmarried women doubled, from just over 500,000 to over 1.2 million. Although this dramatic rate of increase has slowed in recent years, 32 percent of all U.S. births are still to unmarried women. These children are more likely to be poor than children born to married women.

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