Lenna Nepomnyaschy

Child Support and Father-Child Contact: Testing Reciprocal Pathways

I use three waves of panel data to examine the relationship between child support payments and fathers’ contact with their nonmarital children. I disaggregate support into fathers’ formal and informal payments and incorporate cross-lagged effects models to identify the direction of causality between payments and contact. After including the behavior from the prior wave (lagged term) and a rich set of family characteristics, I find a marginally significant effect of paying formally at Time 1 on the likelihood of contact at Time 2 but no effect of contact at Time 1 on formal payments at Time 2. In the first examination of the relationship between informal support and father-child contact, I find a strong, positive reciprocal relationship between the likelihood and frequency of father-child contact and the likelihood and amount of informal support, with slightly stronger and more consistent effects of contact on payments than of payments on contact.

Low Birthweight and Asthma Among Young Urban Children

OBJECTIVES We assessed whether the association between low birthweight and early childhood asthma can be explained by an extensive set of individual- and neighborhood-level measures. METHODS A population-based sample of children born in large US cities during 1998-2000 was followed from birth to age 3 years (N=1803). Associations between low birthweight and asthma diagnosis at age 3 years were estimated using multilevel models. Prenatal medical risk factors and behaviors, demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, and neighborhood characteristics were controlled. RESULTS Low-birthweight children were twice as likely as normal birthweight children to have an asthma diagnosis (34% vs 18%). The fully adjusted association (OR= 2.36; P<.001) was very similar to the unadjusted association (OR= 2.48; P<.001). Rates of renter-occupied housing and vacancies at the census tract-level were strong independent predictors of childhood asthma. CONCLUSIONS Very little of the association between low birthweight and asthma at age 3 can be explained by an extensive set of demographic, socioeconomic, medical, behavioral, and neighborhood characteristics. Associations between neighborhood housing characteristics and asthma diagnosis in early childhood need to be further explored.

Child support enforcement and fathers' contributions to their nonmarital children.

This study examines the total package of child support that mothers receive from the nonresident fathers of their children, by focusing on three components of total support: formal cash, informal cash, and in-kind support. Using the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, this article considers how contributions change over time and the effects of child support enforcement on these contributions. Findings suggest that total cash support received drops precipitously over the first 15 months of living apart (as informal support drops off) and then increases slightly after 45 months (as the increase in formal support overtakes the decrease in informal support). While the study finds no effect of enforcement on total support received in the first 5 years after a nonmarital birth, the substantial differences in total cash support received by the length of time that parents have not been cohabiting suggest that strong enforcement may be efficacious over time.

Sources of Support, Child Care, and Hardship among Unwed Mothers, 1999–2001

Welfare rolls have declined substantially since 1994. However, little is known about the coping strategies that poor mothers use to manage the competing demands of rearing and supporting their children under the new welfare regime. This article uses data from the national Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study to describe the sources of support and child‐care arrangements upon which unwed mothers relied, as well as the difficulties they faced, approximately 5 years after welfare reform. Findings suggest that levels of hardship among unwed mothers are high and that cohabitation and employment are not associated with improved material conditions.

A Cross-National Comparison of Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Low Birth Weight in the United States and England

OBJECTIVE. We used 2 new nationally representative surveys to compare racial and ethnic differences in low birth weight in the United States and England. METHODS. Risk factors and rates of low birth weight were compared across groups for singleton births within each country (white, black, Hispanic, Asian, and American Indian mothers in the United States; white, black, and Asian mothers in England). Crude rates and rates adjusted for socioeconomic status and behaviors were compared. Additional comparisons were limited to native-born mothers. RESULTS. Racial and ethnic disparities in low birth weight are as large in England as in the United States. Socioeconomic status and behaviors explain little of the variation across racial and ethnic groups in either country. CONCLUSIONS. Health disadvantages associated with being a minority do not seem to be a uniquely American phenomenon. Universal health care, as provided in the United Kingdom, alone may be insufficient to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in low birth weight.

Fathers' Involvement with Their Nonresident Children and Material Hardship

Children in single-parent families, particularly children born to unmarried parents, are at high risk for experiencing material hardship. Previous research based on cross-sectional data suggests that father involvement, especially visitation, diminishes hardship. This article uses longitudinal data to examine the associations between nonresident fathers’ involvement with their children and material hardship in the children’s households. Results suggest that fathers’ formal and informal child support payments and contact with their children independently reduce the number of hardships in the mothers’ households; however, only the impact of fathers’ contact with children is robust in models that include lagged dependent variables or individual fixed effects. Furthermore, cross-lagged models suggest that material hardship decreases future father involvement, but future hardship is not diminished by father involvement (except in-kind contributions). These results point to the complexity of these associations and to the need for future research to focus on heterogeneity of effects within the population.

Determinants of TANF Participation: A Multilevel Analysis

This work uses multilevel models to estimate the effects of individual characteristics, local economies, and state policies on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) participation among unmarried mothers with 1‐year‐old children. It also assesses the contributions of the different sets of factors to city variation in rates of TANF participation. Results suggest that the many predictive individual‐level factors account for one‐quarter of the between‐city variance in TANF participation. Most local economic and state policy measures are not associated with TANF participation, but those that are, together, explain another quarter of the between‐city variance. The results will help to inform policy decisions at the state level, to design programs and policies in urban areas, and to understand the factors that promote economic self‐sufficiency.

Nonresident Fathers and Child Food Insecurity: Evidence from Longitudinal Data

More than 1 in 10 children in the United States experience food insecurity, and children in single-mother families are at greatest risk. We examine the associations of nonresident father involvement and child food insecurity using two nationally representative panel data sets of children in early and middle childhood. Nonresident father involvement, based on a comprehensive index, is associated with lower food insecurity in both early and middle childhood, and this is robust to different model specifications. Fathers’ provision of in-kind support is a particularly salient indicator of involvement for both groups of children. We find some evidence that irregular cash support, compared to no support, increases food insecurity for children in middle childhood. These results add to mounting evidence that nonresident father involvement outside of the formal child support system positively affects children and must be considered in policy discussions related to child support, child poverty, and child well-being.

Family Structure and Child Food Insecurity

OBJECTIVES We examined whether food insecurity was different for children in cohabiting or repartnered families versus those in single-mother or married-parent (biological) families. METHODS We compared probabilities of child food insecurity (CFI) across different family structures in 4 national data sets: the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (ECLS-B), the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K), and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics-Child Development Supplement (PSID-CDS). RESULTS Unadjusted probabilities of CFI in cohabiting or repartnered families were generally higher than in married-biological-parent families and often statistically indistinguishable from those of single-mother families. However, after adjustment for sociodemographic factors, most differences between family types were attenuated and most were no longer statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS Although children whose biological parents are cohabiting or whose biological mothers have repartnered have risks for food insecurity comparable to those in single-mother families, the probability of CFI does not differ by family structure when household income, family size, and maternal race, ethnicity, education, and age were held at mean levels.

Race disparities in low birth weight in the U.S. South and the rest of the nation.

There are well-documented and as yet unexplained disparities in birth outcomes by race in the USA. This paper examines the sources of disparities in low birth weight between blacks and whites in the US, by focusing on differences in disparities between two very distinct geographic areas, the Deep South and the rest of the country. Two findings from prior research drive the analyses: first, health overall is worse in the Deep South states; second, race disparities are smaller in the Deep South than in the rest of the nation. A number of potential explanations for these findings are examined using nationally representative data on approximately 8,000 children born in the US in 2001. Results suggest that, first, almost all of the increased burden of low birth weight in the Deep South states may be explained by differences in race composition and socioeconomic status between the Deep South and rest of the nation. Second, the slightly lower race disparities found in the Deep South states are being driven not by better outcomes for black mothers, but by two other factors: higher returns to socioeconomic status for black mothers and much worse outcomes for poor white mothers in the Deep South compared with the rest of the country.