Child Support, Visitation, and Hours of Work

visitation are similar to those that influence labor
force participation decisions.

Women who receive child support payments
(support only or both support and visitation) are
more likely to work than those who do not. (See
table 3.) Among working mothers, those who
teceive visitation only are the most likely to
work fewer than 500 hours a year, whereas
mothers who receive child support payments
only are the least likely to work 2,000 hours or
more a year. Also, while mothers who receive
child support only are more likely to have annual
earnings of less than $10,000 (in 1988 dollars),
those who receive both support and visitation are
the most likely to have annual earnings of more
than $30,000.

There are two noteworthy implications from
these results. First, child support recipients are
more likely to work than are nonrecipients, which
is consistent with previous studies. Second,
among recipients, mothers of children who are
visited by the absent father tend to work more
hours and have higher earnings than do mothers
of children not visited. The results suggest that
there may be inherent differences among recipi-
ents of child support payments whose children

are visited by their fathers because it is doubtful
that visits by absent fathers allow mothers to
work longer hours (the fathers probably do not
act as child care providers; as shown earlier,
most fathers are also working).

An implication of child support studies is that
women who receive child support payments use
this income to pay for child care, thereby allow-
ing them to increase their work hours. Data
show that women who receive both child support
payments and visits from absent fathers and
those who receive support payments only are the
most likely to use child care. However, among
working women who use child care, those re-
ceiving child support only spend, on average,
$38.36 per week for child care, the lowest of the
four child support and visitation status groups. In
contrast, women who receive both child support
and visitation spend the most on child care.
Hence, it appears that mothers whose children
are visited by absent fathers spend more on child
care than do those whose children are not vis-
ited. This link between child support, visitation,
and child care is particularly important, given
that one reason offered for a father’s nonpay-
ment of child support is that it is costly and often

Table 2. Selected characteristics of 23- to 31-year-old absent fathers by payment of
child support and visitation status, 1988
lin percent}
No child
Absent Pald Visited Paid child | support pald
Characteristic fath child aupport | children | supportand | and did not
ere only only | visited children visit
children
Total
Number (thousands) ve. | 1,928 125 581 815 402
Percent ....... vettieeeetes 100 65 30.2 42.4 20.9
Marital status
Married, spouse present ....... 24.4 33.2 148 23.9 35.1
Separated beeen eee 13.5 52 20.6 10.5 124
Divorced... : : 26.5 31.0 19.4 36.7 145
Never-maried.....0000....... | 359 30.6 45.2 28.9 38.3
Education
Lass than high school ........ 26.7 17.2 312 23.0 29.3
High school graduate «<5... 54.6 616 53.6 56.0 512
Some college ....... 15.4 15.0 10.3 18.0 17.4
College graduate... 33 62 39 3.0 24
Whit 53.4 53.3 42.4 55.8 64.3
Blac 37.4 37.2 49.6 33.9 27.0
Hispanic . 7 92 95 8.0 10.3 87
Father's distance from child
Within 1 mile . 178 26.0 15.8 10.6 32.7
110 10 miles . 30.5 34 42.4 38.0 67
11 to 100 miles . 22.5 19.4 23.9 279 10.4
More than 100 miles . 29.2 512 179 23.5 50.2
Source: National Longitudinal Survey of Youth.

44 Monthly Labor Review June 1992



The data from mothers are remarkably simi-
lar to that from the fathers. Among mothers,
those that indicate they do not receive child sup-
port payments are more likely to receive daily
visits from the father of their children. Also,
their children are more likely to be visited only
once in the past year. In addition, recipients of
support are most likely to be visited once a week
or between | and 3 times a week.

Hence, the data from both mothers and fa-
thers suggest that among fathers who visit,
nonpayers of child support are more likely to
have a great deal of contact with the child (al-
most on a daily basis) or virtually no contact
with the child (once a year). This implies that
there is a group of fathers whose daily visits may
substitute for child support payments. Yet for
other fathers, nonpayment of child support is as-
sociated with little or no visits.

Footnotes

MOTHERS WHO RECEIVE child support payments
are more likely to work than are those who do
not, according to information from the National
Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Yet, among re-
cipients of child support payments, mothers
whose children are visited by the absent father
work more hours and have higher earnings than
do mothers who receive child support only.
Although the use of child day care services is
higher among women who receive child support,
average weekly expenditures for such services
are higher for mothers whose children are visited
by the father. Also, fathers who pay child sup-
port work more hours and have higher earnings
than do those that do not. In addition, fathers
who pay support are more likely to visit their
children, but among those who visit, nonpay-
ers are more likely to visit either daily or only
once a year. Oo

"These figures are taken from the Statistical Abstract of
the United States: 1991 (U.S. Department of Commerce,
Bureau of the Census, 1991).

2 These numbers are taken from Child Support and Ali-
mony: 1987, Special Studies, Series P-23, No. 167 (U.S.
Department of Commerce, Bureau of Census, 1989),

+ For example, see Irwin Garfinkel, Philip K. Robins, Pat
Wong, and Daniel R. Meyer, “The Wisconsin Child Support
Assurance System,” Journal of Human Resources, vol. 25,
no, 1, 1990, pp. 1-31; or Philip K, Robins, “Child Support,
Welfare Dependency, and Poverty,” American Economic
Review, vol. 76, no.4, 1986, pp. 768-88.

* See Marilyn E, Manser and others, “National Longitu-
dinal Surveys: development and uses,” Monthly Labor Re-
view, July 1990, pp. 32-37, or wus Handbook 1991

5 See Allyson Sherman Grossman and Howard Hayghe,
“Labor force activity of women receiving child support or ali-
mony,” Monthly Labor Review, November 1982, pp. 39-41

© Benefits from Aid to Families with Dependent Children
(AFDC) are reduced dollar-for-dollar if child support received
is more than $50 per month.

7 See John W, Graham and Andrea H. Beller, “The Effect
of Child Support Payments on the Labor Supply of Female
Family Heads,” Journal of Human Resources, vol. 24, no. 4,
1989, pp. 664-85,

* For example, see Judith A. Seltzer, Nora Cate
Schaeffer, and Hong-Wen Chamg, “Family Ties after Di-
vorce: The Relationship between Visiting and Paying Child
Support,” Journal of Marriage and the Family, vol. 51, No-
vember 1989, pp. 1013-32.

° The distribution of ages of mothers and fathers is given
in Supplement to the monthly vital statistics report: advance
reports, 1987, Vital Health Statistics, Series 24, No. 4 (Na-
tional Center for Health Statistics, 1990).

© See Andrew Cherlin, Jeanne Griffith, and James

McCarthy, “A Note on Maritally-Disrupted Men’s Reports
of Child Support in the June 1980 Current Population Sur-
vey,” Demography, vol. 20, No. 3, August 1983, pp. 385-89.

"All inferences drawn in the text are statistically signifi-
cant, Standard errors are available from the author upon re-
quest.

= Remarriage by the custodial mother is found to be
negatively related to visitation in Frank F. Furstenberg, Jr.,
Christine Winquist Nord, James L. Peterson, and Nicholas
Zill, “The Life Course of Children of Divorce: Marital Dis-
ruption and Parental Contact,” American Sociological Re-
view, vol. 48, October 1983, pp. 656-68. Remarriage by the
custodial mother is found to be negatively related to child
support receipt in Martha S. Hill, “The role of economic
resources and remarriage in financial assistance for children
of divorce,” Institute for Social Research, University of
Michigan, 1991.

° In cases where there is more than one child with a non-
resident father, the visitation and distance variables are con-
structed using data for the youngest child.

See Grossman and Hayghe, “Labor force activity of
women receiving child support or alimony.”

'S For a theoretical model which tries to explain why ab-

sent fathers do not pay support, see Yoram Weiss and Robert
. "Children as Collective Goods and Divorce Settle-

ments,” Journal of Labor Economics, vol. 3, no. 3, 1985,
pp. 268-92

‘© For an example of the debate between custodial par-
ents, see comments by Dick Woods, president of the Na-
tional Congress for Men, and Margaret Campbell Haynes,
chairwoman of the National Commission on Interstate Child
Support in “Child Support System Called ‘Abysmal,"” The
Washington Past, Apr. 5, 1991.

” See Seltzer, Schaeffer, and Chamg, “Family Ties after
Divorce: The Relationship between Visiting and Paying
Child Support.”

Monthly Labor Review June 1992 47


Table 1. Selected characteristics of 23- to 31-year-old mothers with custody of thelr
children, by recelpt of child support payments and visitation status of the
father, 1988
{in percent}
No child
Recelved ‘support
Received “wv child support | received
Characteristic Mothers | child support ‘ payments and | and children
payments only | Ytather | chidren were | were not
only visited by father | visited by
father
Total
Number (thousands) 3,167 166 att 922 968
Percent ...... +++ 100 52 35.41 28.1 30.6
Marital status
Married, spouse present . 25.0 313 14.6 21.0 39.7
Separated . : 16.2 106 252 13.3 97
Divorced ......... 28.6 35.6 226 415 218
Never-married . ... 30.2 22.5 376 24.2 28.8
Education
Less than high schoo! 23.9 198 20.4 18.4 23.9
High school graduate 54.9 58.3 49.0 59.4 56.8
Some college ........ 183 192 18.4 10.4 172
College graduate... . 29 27 32 34 24
Race
White... 87.5 145 45.0 683 58.9
Black 30.1 196 45.4 25.2 32.0
Hispanic. vee : 84 58 98 65 94
Father's distance from child
Within + mil 19.5 25.0 166 13.9 276
1to 10 miles . 25.4 159 35.3 33.2 74
11 to 100 miles . 26.3 12.8 25.2 34.8 22.1
More than 100 mi 29.1 46.3 22.9 18.9 42.9
Source: National Longitudinal Survey of Youth.

that they neither pay child support nor visit their
children have a higher percentage among whites
than among other races.

The relationship between distance from the
child and child support payments and visitation
status of fathers is remarkably similar to that for
mothers. Fathers who visit their children (visit
only or pay child support and visit) are more
likely to live between 1 and 100 miles from the
child, whereas fathers who do not visit tend to
live either within 1 mile from the child or more
than 100 miles away. These findings suggest
that the relationship between child support,
visitation, and distance between parents needs
further examination.

Hours of work and earnings

Child support payments have potential effects
on the labor force participation decisions of both
mothers with custody and absent fathers. The
data reveal that receipt and payment of child
support as well as visits by the absent father are
positively related to having worked in the previ-

ous year. The following tabulation shows the
work experience of mothers and fathers, by child
support and visitation status:

__MIn thousands) _
Workedin Percent
Total previous of total
year
Mothers:
Nonrecipients. . 2,080 1,445 69.5
Recipients 087 842 715
No visits 1,134 78 69.3
Received visits. 2,033 1,499 73.7
Fathers:
Nonpayers 983 797 81.1
Payers . 940 861 91.6
Did not visit . 527 421 79.9
Visited... 1,396 1,237 88.6

The positive association between working and re-
ceiving child support payments for mothers is
similar to that found by Grossman and Hayghe.'*
The results on the relation between child support
and work for both parents suggest that factors that
influence decisions concerning child support and

Monthly Labor Review June 1992 43


Table 3. Annual hours of work and earnings of 23- to 31-year-old mothers with custody
of their children by receipt of child support payments and visitation status of
father, 1988
[in percent)
No child
Received support
Received Children | child support | received
Characteristic Mothers | child support | visited by | payments and | and children
payments only | father only | children were | were not
visited by father | visited by
father
Total (in thousands) 3,167 166 4ant 922 968
Worked in previous year
Number (in thousands) ........ 2,287 128 785 714 660
Percent of total : 72.2 774 70.7 774 68.2
Annual hours worked
9.7 81 13.6 5.7 99
11.0 12.8 102 10.7 122
. 13.7 2156 12.3 12.0 16.1
1800-1989... 177 22.9 15.9 22.5 132
2000 or more . . 479 34.7 48.0 49.1 48.6
Annual earnings!
$1-$9,999 ... 48.9 61.4 51.0 44.0 50.0
$10,000-$19,999 . 39.5 33.7 38.1 40.3 413
$20,000-$29,999 . 98 52 10.0 11.2 86
$30,000 or more... : 18 ° 09 45 0
Child care expenditure
Paid in jast 4 weeks by mother
(or currant husband) .... . 444 48.5 425 51.5 36.5
‘Average weekly costs
to working women . $53.59 $38.36 $53.5 $61.13 $44.89
‘in 1988 dollars.
Source: National Longitudinal Survey of Youth,

impossible for the noncustodial parent to control
the resources of the custodial parent.’ Basi-
cally, the absent father is less willing to pay sup-
port if he is not sure what the mother will do
with the money. If the father believed the child
support payments would be used to offset child
care costs, he might be more willing to pay.
Table 4 presents annual hours and earnings
of absent fathers by payment of child support
and visitation status. The data reveal that fathers
who provide both child support and visitation
are the most likely to work, as more than 90 per-
cent were employed in 1987. Among working
fathers, it appears that nonpayers of child sup-
port (visited children only or neither paid sup-
port nor visited) have a greater tendency to work
fewer than 1,500 hours a year and have earnings
Jess than $10,000 per year. In contrast, payers of
child support (child support only or both child
support and visitation) are more apt than
nonpayers to work 2,000 or more hours a year
and to have earnings of $30,000 or more per
year. This positive association between child
support payments and earnings might exist be-
cause fathers with higher earnings are more

likely to have support awards ordered by the
courts, or because they are more willing to share
their monetary resources with their children.

Hence, while there are differences in hours
and earnings between payers and nonpayers of
child support, there is little difference between
the visitation behavior of these two groups.

Child support—visitation link

While child support and visitation are related to
hours of work, the interrelationship between
child support and visitation is of considerable
debate in itself. On the one hand, advocacy
groups representing absent fathers often claim
that nonpayment of child support is directly re-
lated to mothers with custody denying absent fa-
thers the right to visit their children. The fathers
argue that child support payments will increase
if they are allowed more contact with their chil-
dren. On the other hand, activists representing
mothers with custody argue that denial of visits
is not the issue and even if visits are denied, they
believe that this should not affect the payment of
child support. These advocacy groups represent-

Monthly Labor Review June 1992 45


Jonathan R. Veum

Jonathan R. Veum is an
economist in the Office of
Economic Research,
Bureau of Labor Statistics.

40 Monthly Labor Review

Interrelation of child support,
visitation, and hours of work

Young mothers who receive child support payments

are more likely to work than nonrecipients

and are apt to work longer hours and have higher earnings
if their children are visited by the father;

young fathers who pay support are more likely

than nonpayers to visit their children

r | J he composition of families has changed
significantly over the past 15 to 20 years.
Particularly, the percentage of families

that were headed by women grew from 21.1 per-

cent to 31.1 percent from 1970 to 1988. The
growth in the number of such families is occur-
ring for two reasons. First, there has been a large
increase in marital separation and divorce. The
percentage of divorced women aged 18 or older
increased from 4.3 percent in 1970 to 13.9 per-
cent in 1988. Second, there has been a sharp rise
in the number of unwed mothers, as the fre-
quency of births to unwed mothers increased
from 26.4 percent in 1970 to 38.6 percent in

1988.!

Consequently, financial support, and the lack
of it, for children who live apart from their fa-
thers is of increasing concern. In 1987, only 3.7
million of the 9.4 million women with own chil-
dren under age 21 whose father was absent re-
ceived child support. In addition, about one-third
of these women had incomes below the poverty
level, and data show that many families in poverty
receive welfare payments.’ Hence, a contributing
factor to the incidence of poverty and welfare de-
pendency of custodial parents is inadequate finan-
cial support received from the absent parent.

The economic situation of women with chil-
dren, combined with the lack of support pay-
ments by absent fathers has led to Federal
legislation aimed at collecting money from
these fathers. The Child Support Enforcement
Amendments of 1984 requires each State to es-
tablish guidelines for determining child support

June 1992

awards, and the Family Welfare Reform Act of
1988 requires States to provide by 1994 wage
withholding for all new orders for child support
awards.

Child support reform is expected to affect a
number of issues involving parents, such as visi-
tation rights of noncustodial parents, custody,
welfare dependence, labor force participation,
divorce, remarriage, and the decision to have a
child.* This article examines the interrelation-
ship between child support payments to custo-
dial mothers, visitation of noncustodial fathers,
and annual hours of work of the parents. These
three activities are interdependent and also affect
the economic well-being of parents and their
children. Data are from the 1988 National Longi-
tudinal Survey of Youth (Youth Survey), an on-
going longitudinal survey sponsored by the
Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Youth Survey
provides annual information on a sample of
young women and men who were 14 to 22 years
old in 1979. In 1988, the sample, which includes
an overrepresentation of blacks, Hispanics, and
economically disadvantaged whites, had 10,466
respondents. In all computations, weights are
used to adjust for different sampling rates and
nonresponse rates, so that the data are nationally
representative of the age group.

Background and issues

A 1982 study by Allyson Sherman Grossman
and Howard Hayghe indicates that the receipt of
child support payments is positively related to


Child Support, Visitation, and Hours of Work

ing mothers claim that child support and visita-
tion should be treated as separate issues.”

As mentioned previously, research to date
tends to support the argument made by absent fa-
thers that child support payments and visitation
are complementary. That is, payments of child
support are positively related to frequency of visi-
tation. This positive association persists even after
controlling for a number of demographic factors
used to predict payments and visitation."”

Table 5 shows the relationship between child
support payments and visitation by absent fathers.
The data from mothers with custody and absent

fathers indicate that fathers who pay child support
are more likely to visit their children at least once
over the past survey year (1987-88) than are fa-
thers who pay no support, which is consistent with
findings from previous studies. However, among
those who visit, there are considerable differences
by frequency of visitation. According to informa-
tion from fathers, non-payers of child support are
more likely than payers to visit daily or 2 to 5
times a week. Nonpayers are also more likely to
visit only once within the past year. Fathers who
Pay support are more apt to visit once a week or
between 1 and 3 times a month.

Table 4, | Annual hours of work and earnings of 23- to 31-year-old fathers by payment of
child support and visitation status, 1988
{In percent]
No child
Paid Visited Paid child | support pald
Characteristic Fathers | child support } children support and and did
only ‘only visited chlidren visit
children
Total {in thousands) 1,928 125 531 815 402
Worked in previous year
Number (in thousands) . 1,658 105 431 756 316
Ce 86.2 84.0 82.8 92.8 78.6
Annus! hours worked
1-499 . a4 07 84 17 5.6
500-999 . 8.0 3.9 10.2 5.6 12.5
1000-1498... 10.5 97 10.4 79 17.98
1500-1999... 18.8 20.6 214 18.4 15.9
2000 or more : 585 65.1 50.5 66.4 48.1
Annual earnings
$1-$9,999 31.9 20.4 44.4 20.2 46.7
10,000-19,999 ..-: 36.2 41.0 34.0 37.4 34.8
20,000-29,999 ........ 20,7 175 166 274 118
30,000 or more .. 112 2a 5.0 15.3 67
‘In 1988 dollars.

Source: National Longitudinal Survey of Youth.

Table 5. Frequency of fathers’ visitation by child support status, according to surveyed
mothers and fathers, 1988
{In percent]
Mothers with custody Absent fathers
Incidence of visitation
Nonrecipients Recipients Nonpayers Payers
Total (in thousands).......0.. 06.00. 2,079 1,087 963 940
Father visited
Number (in thousands) .....02...., 1441 922 581 815
Percent ............. 53.4 84.8 59.1 86,7
Frequency of visits:
Almost every day... . 15.0 72 13.2
21o 5 times a week .. 14.6 15.3 27.3
About once a week 12.9 162 12.4
1 to 3 times a month . 20.7 26.3 16.9
2to 11 times in the
past year .. 23.2 24.9 192 18.8
‘Onca in the past 13.7 10.0 10.9 83
Source: National Longitudinal Survey of Youth,

46 Monthly Labor Review June 1992



labor force participation.* This finding seems
somewhat surprising because one might assume
that income transfers would reduce the hours of
work of mothers. However, receipt of child sup-
port is complicated by the fact that if the indi-
vidual also receives welfare benefits, welfare
payments are reduced by nearly the entire
amount of the child support payment, meaning
that a mother who receives welfare may not be
any better off financially after receiving child
support payments.® Yet, if child support pay-
ments could entirely replace welfare benefits,
the incentives to work would increase, because
welfare benefits contain a large marginal tax on
earnings, while child support payments do not.
However, for mothers not on welfare, an in-
crease in child support payments will increase
nonlabor income, which generally reduces hours
of work.

A 1989 study by John Graham and Andrea
Beller indicates that, after controlling for the
complications induced by the welfare system,
child support payments reduce hours of work,
but by a much smaller magnitude than other
forms of nonlabor income.’ Graham and Beller
speculate that child support may be different
from other nonlabor income for two reasons.
First, women who receive child support pay-
ments may use this income to purchase com-
modities that can substitute for time at home,
such as child care services, thus allowing them
to increase their hours of work. Second, because
many fathers only partially comply with child
support awards or do not comply at all, mothers
may view child support as a risky income
source, and consequently regard it as not having
the same negative effect on their hours of work
as other more guaranteed forms of nonlabor in-
come.

The hours of work and earnings of absent fa-
thers are also affected by changes in the way
child support is awarded and collected. When an
award is set by the court, the size of the payment
is often based at least partially on the father’s
earnings. In cases that involve wage garnish-
ment, the payment is collected through payroll
withholding in the same manner as Social Secu-
tity and income taxes. Consequently, an absent
parent’s labor force activity is interrelated with
child support payments.

Another issue associated with changes in the
child support system is that of visitation by the
absent parent. Research to date indicates child
support payments are positively related to fre-
quency of visitation.* This result is sometimes
interpreted as a consequence of parents with
greater resources being more willing to spend
time with their children. However, this interpre-
tation ignores the possibility that fathers with

higher earnings may find it more expensive (ac-
cording to the market value of their time) to
spend time with their children than do fathers
with lower earnings.

Overall, previous studies indicate a relation-
ship between payment of child support and
hours of work, as well as between child support
and visitation. This article extends the analyses
to examine the joint interdependence among
payment of child support, visitation, and hours
of work. In contrast with most previous research,
the data in this study are based on responses
from both custodial mothers and absent fathers.
Because of the lack of data on absent parents,
Most studies on child support payments analyze
information obtained solely from mothers with
custody of their children, Such information
might understate the amount of child support
and extent of visitation because mothers could
be unaware of direct transfers by the absent fa-
ther to the children and of ail the time the absent
father spent with the children. However, absent
fathers could overstate the amount of payments
and extent of visitation by not complying or par-
tially complying with child support award
amounts, and they could be hesitant to admit
they do not visit their children. While the Youth
Survey does not allow the questioning of both
parents of a child, the data do allow comparison
of results from two separate samples; a sample
of mothers with custody of their children and a
sample of absent fathers.

Custodial mothers, absent fathers

The following tabulation shows the receipt/pay-
ment of child support and visits by absent fathers
as reported by custodial mothers and absent fa-
thers (numbers in thousands):

Mothers Absent
with custody fathers
Total... 06.0... cece ee 3,167 1,923
Received child support
payments:
Number ......... 1,087
Percent.............. 34.3
Paid child support:
Number .. . . 940
Percent... . 48.9
Child visited by father:
Number 2,033 1,396
Percent..... 64.2 72.6

Approximately one-third of the mothers claim to
receive support payments, and about two-thirds
of them report their children received at least
one visit by an absent father over the course of a
year, In contrast, nearly half of the fathers report
they provide support to children living else-

Monthly Labor Review June 1992 41


Child Support, Visitation, and Hours of Work

where and nearly three-quarters of them say they
visit their children. The data also reveal that
there are more mothers with custody of their
children than there are absent fathers. Part of this
discrepancy is attributable to the fact that the
sample includes individuals who were between
ages 23 and 31 in 1988, and because mothers
are, on average, younger than fathers, we might
expect more mothers than fathers in this
sample.?

Yet, the number of fathers who report paying
child support is similar to the number of mothers
who report receiving child support; both close to
1 million. Consequently, the discrepancy in the
total number of men reporting to have children
who do not live with them and the number of
women with children whose father is absent
might occur because fathers who do not pay
child support are less likely to reveal the exist-
ence of children not living in the household. This
conclusion is consistent with a 1983 study by
Andrew Cherlin, Jeanne Griffith, and James
McCarthy which uses data from the Current
Population Survey.'?

However, the number of mothers reporting
that their children were visited by the father is
substantially higher than the number of men re-
porting visitation. This information indicates
that, while a large number of fathers do not pay
child support, a much greater number do visit
their children. This also suggests that men who
admit to being an absent father are more likely to
Pay support and visit than are other fathers,

Interrelationships

To examine the relationship between child sup-
port payments, visitation, and hours of work, we
define four mutually exclusive categories for
each parent:

e child support is received or paid, but there is
No visitation;

e visitation occurs, but no child support is

received or paid;

child support is received or paid and visitation

occurs; and

child support is not received or paid and

visitation does not occur.

Child support payments and visitation are mea-
surable characteristics of parents, as are marital
status, education, race, and father’s distance
from the child. Together, these variables pro-
duce a number of measurable differences among
parents by demographic characteristics.

The mothers. Table 1 compares selected char-
acteristics for mothers with custody of the chil-
dren by receipt of child support payments and

42 Monthly Labor Review June 1992

the absent father’s visitation status. It appears
that receiving child support without visitation is
relatively rare, occurring in only 5.2 percent of
approximately 3.2 million cases.

The data also indicate there is considerable
variation by demographic characteristics.!’ For
instance, women who are currently divorced are
most likely to receive both child support and
visitation, probably because child support
awards and visitation arrangements often are es-
tablished as part of divorce settlements. In con-
trast, a large proportion (39.7 percent) of the
mothers who do not receive child support or visi-
tation are currently married. This result might
suggest that marriage or remarriage by the
mother reduces the ties between the child and the
child’s father.'? A large percentage (37.6 per-
cent) of mothers reporting visitation only have
never been married.

In addition, mothers whose children receive
visitation only are more likely to have dropped
out of high school than are other mothers. Moth-
ers who receive child support only or receive
both child support and visitation have a higher
percentage among whites than among other
races.”

The relationship between distance of the fa-
ther from the child and child support and visita-
tion is surprising.'* Mothers with children who
are not visited by the father (they receive child
support only or receive neither child support nor
visitation) are more likely to live more than 100
miles from the father, as might be expected. Yet,
a large percentage of mothers with no visitation
live within 1 mile of the father. Visitation most
commonly occurs when the parents live between
1 and 100 miles from each other.

The fathers. Table 2 presents data reported by
absent fathers on payment of child support and
visitation status. Fathers report payment of
child support and visits with their children pro-
portionately more than do mothers (42.4 per-
cent versus 29.1 percent). Yet, patterns by
demographic characteristics of fathers are fairly
similar to that of mothers. As with mothers, fa-
thers who pay child support and visit their chil-
dren are more likely to be divorced, while
fathers who visit only are more likely to have
never married. Also, more than one-third (35.1
percent) of fathers who do not pay child support
or visit their children are currently married,
suggesting that marriage or remarriage reduces
the ties between the father and a child outside
the household.

In addition, there is a higher percentage of
high school dropouts and black fathers who visit
their children, but do not pay child support, com-
pared with other fathers. Yet, fathers who report