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Toward a Fuller Understanding of Nonresident Father Involvement: An Examination of Child Support, In-Kind Support, and Visitation

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Abstract

The majority of studies of nonresident father involvement focus on either child support payments or visitation. However, nearly 60% of custodial parents receive in-kind (i.e., noncash) support of some form. Using data from a nationally representative sample of children with nonresident fathers (the Child Development Supplement of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics), we simultaneously investigate via a trivariate probit model the relationships among three aspects of father involvement: child support, in-kind support, and visitation. We find that these dimensions of involvement are positively related and highly intertwined with the strongest positive relationship being between in-kind support and visitation. Additionally, these aspects of involvement have different sets of determinants. Economic characteristics of the resident household are more frequently associated with the receipt of child support, while demographic characteristics of the child, mother, father and resident household are related to all three aspects of nonresident father involvement. Generally speaking, when differences in impacts of determinants vary for lower and higher income resident families, the differences are related to the receipt of child support. Fewer differences are observed with regard to in-kind support receipt or with visitation. Our model also measures how unobserved factors are related to these facets of involvement. Most notable across income groups is that unobserved factors are positively related for child support and in-kind support receipt for higher income resident households. This relationship is insignificant for lower income resident households.

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Notes

  1. For other uses of the trivariate probit model, see, for example, Bollinger and David (2001), Büchel and Pollmann-Schult (2004), Gage (2005), and Loureiro and Nayga (2007).

  2. Obtaining information regarding child support receipt, in-kind support receipt, and interactions between the nonresident father and his children from mothers is standard among national surveys [e.g., Current Population Survey (CPS), Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP)]. Limited evidence suggests that mothers may underreport this information while fathers may overreport it (Braver et al. 1991; Seltzer and Brandreth 1994).

  3. Estimating a trivariate probit model requires dichotomizing each of the three dependent variables. Our model incorporates the most generous definitions of providing child and in-kind support and of visiting. We note here that these results were generally stable and robust across a range of dichotomizations of the three dependent variables including setting the threshold for child support receipt at $0, $100 and $200, setting the threshold for in-kind support receipt at one and two of the seven items examined here, and setting the threshold for visitation at once a year and several times a year. The results from these other estimations are available from the authors by request.

  4. We recognize the potential dual direction of some of the economic variables (e.g., income). While child support, in-kind support, and visitation can affect income and other economic variables, we treat these variables as exogenous. One possibility for avoiding this problem is to eliminate the economic variables from the model, but we believe that this would introduce other problems, especially in terms of potential omitted variable bias.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank Yemisi Kuku and Shuxin Cui for tremendous research assistance. An earlier version of this paper presented at the 2007 Population Association of America annual meeting, March 29–31, New York, NY. Gundersen acknowledges partial funding from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service (CSREES), Hatch project no. ILLU-470-331.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Iowa State University, 4380 Palmer Building, Room 2330, Ames, IA, 50011, USA

    Steven Garasky & Brenda J. Lohman

  2. Department of Sociology, Iowa State University, 107 East Hall, Ames, IA, 50011, USA

    Susan D. Stewart

  3. Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois, 324 Mumford Hall, 1301 West Gregory Dr., Urbana, IL, 61801-3605, USA

    Craig Gundersen

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  1. Steven Garasky
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Correspondence to Steven Garasky.

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Garasky, S., Stewart, S.D., Gundersen, C. et al. Toward a Fuller Understanding of Nonresident Father Involvement: An Examination of Child Support, In-Kind Support, and Visitation. Popul Res Policy Rev 29, 363–393 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11113-009-9148-3

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