title: Child support and the postdivorce economic well-being of mothers, fathers, and children.
abstract: This article provides national estimates of the current and potential impact of private child support transfers on the economic well-being of custodial and noncustodial families following marital dissolution. Mothers and children fare dramatically worse than fathers after marital dissolution; these differences, however, would be much more pronounced in the absence of private child support. Simulations of four existing child support guidelines show that substantial increases in economic well-being among mother-custody families are possible within the structure of the existing child support system, with minimal impact on poverty among nonresident fathers. Under all of these guidelines, however, custodial-mother families would continue to fare substantially worse than nonresident fathers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Consumer Science, School of Human Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison 53706, USA. bartfeld@facstaff.wisc.edu
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bartfeld
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002654:Child Care / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002655:Child Custody / Q000191:economics; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003625:Data Collection; D004243:Divorce / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D011203:Poverty / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012946:Social Welfare; D014481:United States