View Research by Author - Helen Oliver

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

Nearly half of young, poor children and two-thirds of poor infants are likely to see their fathers frequently even if their parents are not married according to data from the 1999 National Survey of America's Families. The report identifies six living arrangements based on the marital status of the child's parents, whether they live together, and whether the father visits the child regularly. Black children are much less likely than white or Hispanic children to live with both of their parents. Instead, fragile-visiting families (the child's parents have never been married to each other, the child lives with the mother, and the father visits regularly) are a uniquely important arrangement by which poor black children have frequent contact with their fathers. [View the press release]

Welfare reform in 1996 was predicated on the notion that both parents should financially support their children, regardless of where they live or their poverty status. This meant placing greater emphasis on work for custodial parents and strengthening child support enforcement for nonresident parents. Although this approach has been quite successful--it has reduced welfare dependency, increased employment among single mothers, and increased child support collections--it has not worked for the 2.5 million nonresident fathers who are poor and do not pay child support. Most of these fathers are the fathers of children on welfare. In order for child support to be an important source of income for these children, Congress and state governments need to develop a strategy that makes it possible for poor nonresident fathers to pay child support.

Child support reforms were an integral part of the 1996 welfare reform law. By strengthening child support enforcement, Congress intended to increase child support collections and thus improve the self-sufficiency of low-income families. This paper assesses whether the child support reforms enacted in 1996 improved child support outcomes during the initial years after enacting welfare reform. It uses a difference-in-difference-in-difference apprach with data from the 1997 and 1999 National Survey of America's Families. We find that some of the key child support reforms, notably new hire directories and improved paternity establishment procedures, have contributed to gains in child support outcomes among low- and middle-income children with a never-married mother, a group that has received little child support in the past.

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