Legislating Adequacy

The Impact of Child Support Guidelines

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4085591
AutoresJessica Pearson (0000-0002-7154-8212), Nancy Thoennes, Patricia Tjaden
Ano1989
Volume23
Fascículo4
Páginas569-590
Data de publicação1989-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoLaw & Society Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0023-9216 • E-ISSN: 1540-5893
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/3053848
OpenAlexW2314307719
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas2
Referências citadas11

Three major child support guideline models are currently used in the United States to stimulate adequate levels of child support. To evaluate the effects of these guidelines, we examined cases filed before and after their introduction in three states that enacted different models. Overall, we found a modest increase in child support awards and few differences across models. The most substantial increases occurred in low-income cases in settings in which awards had historically been low. Guidelines also appeared to decrease the likelihood of a zero dollar award in cases that had previously lacked orders: those in which the father was unemployed and in which the obligor was female.Post-guideline order levels in low-income families still fall short of the best available estimates of expenditures on children in intact households; they match expenditures in intact households in middle-and upper-income families. We consider several factors that may explain the limitations as well as the successes of guidelines in stimulating change

Business · Child support · Criminology · Political science · Child and Adolescent Health · Family Dynamics and Relationships · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Law · Psychology