“I don't try to seek him out”: Views of child support over time

Abstract

Objective

This study examines how mothers with limited incomes think about the relationship between child support, making ends meet, and co-parenting relationships early in children's lives.

Background

Research has documented how formal and informal child support can be important resources for custodial parents and their children. Whether and how child support arrangements are made can be complicated by relationship dissolution, parental repartnering, and co-parents' relationship quality. Prior studies suggest relationship dynamics shape the financial support that noncustodial parents provide to custodial parents. We examine how custodial parents balance relationships and finances in their approaches to pursuing formal and informal child support.

Method

We used inductive and deductive coding methods to analyze interviews completed with 58 mothers approximately every year over the first 4 years of their children's lives. Mothers were part of the Baby's First Years study, a U.S.-based randomized controlled trial assessing the impacts of additional income on child development.

Results

Mothers' decision-making around child support and family relationships were interconnected and dynamic across children's early years. Mothers' interest in and willingness to make financial demands of fathers was complicated by their relational goals of maintaining or limiting fathers' contact with their families.

Conclusion

Child support policy exclusively focuses on financial resource provision, but custodial mothers do not.

Implications

Policymakers and scholars should consider the ways in which child support policies may not align with custodial parents' relational goals.