title: How Much In-Kind Support Do Low-Income Nonresident Fathers Provide? A Mixed-Method Analysis.
abstract: Past child support research has largely focused on cash payments made through the courts (formal support) or given directly to the mother (informal support), almost to the exclusion of a third type: non-cash goods (in-kind support). Drawing on repeated, semistructured interviews with nearly 400 low-income noncustodial fathers, the authors found that in-kind support constitutes about one quarter of total support. Children in receipt of some in-kind support receive, on average, $60 per month worth of goods. Multilevel regression analyses demonstrated that children who are younger and have more hours of visitation, as well as those whose father has a high school education and no current substance abuse problem, receive in-kind support of greater value. Yet children whose fathers lack stable employment, or are Black, receive a greater proportion of their total support in kind. A subsequent qualitative analysis revealed that fathers' logic for providing in-kind support is primarily relational, and not financial.
authors.affiliation: Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina, 206 West Franklin St., Chapel Hill, NC 27516.
authors.forename: Jennifer B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Kane
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, 3400 N. Charles St., Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218.
authors.forename: Timothy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nelson
authors.affiliation: Department of Sociology, 3400 N. Charles St., Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218.
authors.forename: Kathryn
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Edin
keywords: child support; family policy—child-related; low-income families; noncustodial parents