Unpaid Child Support: The Abuse of American Values.

Noting that fewer than half the single mothers in the United States receive complete and regular child support payments, this paper discusses reasons for unpaid child support, examines whether stricter enforcement of child support obligations will help solve the overall problem, and proposes another option for solving the problem of unpaid child support. Typical cases of unpaid child support are presented to illustrate the range of situations considered. The paper examines the current trend of forcing fathers to pay child support and describes recent legislation to increase fathers' financial contributions or to locate delinquent fathers. The paper notes that child support payment enforcement is not sensitive to fathers' individual situations, such as differences in social ties or changes in the family structure, and asserts the need to consider how to help fathers and mothers increase their incomes. Further, the paper maintains that legislation has contributed to the dissolution of families because financial contributions are guaranteed to divorced and never-married mothers. It is argued that American family dissolution and problems in obtaining child support are related to American values of freedom, individualism, and independence. The paper maintains that stricter enforcement of child support does not help to solve the overall problem because it is related to the abuse of the values of freedom, individualism, and independence. The paper concludes by proposing an after-school prevention program targeting junior and senior high school African American males in high unemployment areas. Contains 28 references. (KB) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. f Unpaid Child Support 1 Running head: UNPAID CHILD SUPPORT U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as eceived from the person or organization originating it. Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. Unpaid Child Support: The Abuse of American Values Futoshi Kobayashi The University of Texas at Austin 1 PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY k.OS\f % ---X-001Z6NTA TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) 2 BEST COPY AVM LE SD Unpaid Child Support 2 Unpaid Child Support: The Abuse of American Values The United States of America is one of the strongest economic and political powers in the world. Therefore, America's standard of living should also be one of the highest among the world's many nations. Yet when we examine the welfare of American children, we can see discrepancies. According to a 1995 Census Bureau Report, approximately one out of every four American children live in poverty (Huston, 1996). Children make up 40% of the total poverty-stricken population in this rich nation. This figure also means that children have become the poorest of the poor in all age groups for the first time since the American government started to collect data on poverty in the late 1950s (Scarbrough, 1993). Compared to other developed countries (i.e., 9.3% in Canada, 9.0% in Australia, 7.4% in U.K., 4.6% in France, 3.8% in Holland, 2.8% in Germany, & 1.6% in Sweden), America has the highest percentage of children living in poverty (Hembrooke, Morris, & Bronfenbrenner, 1996). One way of understanding why poverty among children in America is a more serious problem than the average American realizes is to look at family structure. Today one out of two marriages ends in divorce (Furstenburg, 1995). There were 16.9 million children who lived in single parent households in 1991, and this figure included 26% of all children under age 18. In addition, 86.4% of these children lived with only their mothers (Scarbrough, 1993). The poverty rate of families with children under the age of 6 is as follows: 88% live in unmarried single mother households, 34% in single father households, 77% in divorced mother households, and only 16% in intact households. (Hembrooke, et al., 1996). These data show that poverty among children is most serious in households headed by single mothers. Scarbrough (1993) pointed out four reasons why single mother households are more likely to fall in the poverty range than intact families. First, one income is usually smaller than two. Second, women usually make less money than men. In 1992, the average income for women was only three-fourths that of men (Board on Children and