2018–2019 Research Area: Research to Inform Child Support Policies and Programs

About half of all American children will spend at least part of their childhood living in a single-parent, most frequently single-mother, family. Single-parent families with minor children are particularly economically vulnerable.

The child support enforcement program plays a critical role in facilitating private income transfers from noncustodial parents to their nonresident children.

The 2018 to 2019 extramural research funding program supports research to generate potential policy and/or programmatic implications for the child support enforcement program at the federal, state, or local level.

Funded Proposals

Lindsey Rose Bullinger, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University, and Kosali Simon, Herman B. Wells Endowed Professor, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University: "Child Support and the Affordable Care Act: The Effect of Medicaid Expansions on Child Support Payments"

Laura Cuesta, Assistant Professor, School of Social Work, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey: "The Regularity of Child Support and Its Contribution to Family Self-Sufficiency"

Colleen M. Heflin, Professor of Public Administration and International Affairs, Center for Policy Research, Syracuse University, and Leonard M. Lopoo, Professor of Public Administration and International Affairs, Center for Policy Research, Syracuse University: "Does Child Support Increase Self-Sufficiency? Results from Virginia"

Marybeth J. Mattingly, Research Assistant Professor, Carsey School of Public Policy, University of New Hampshire, and Robert Paul Hartley, Postdoctoral Research Scientist, Center on Poverty and Social Policy, Columbia University: "The Regularity of Noncustodial Parent Child Support and the Wellbeing of Custodial Families with Young Children"

Christopher J. Uggen, Regents Professor and Distinguished McKnight Professor of Sociology and Law, University of Minnesota: "Dual Debtors: Child Support and Criminal Financial Legal Obligations"