Child Support Enforcement and Father Involvement for Children in Never-Married Mother Families

This paper uses the 1988-1998 waves of the Current Population Survey—Child Support Supplement to track trends in father involvement for children in never-married families and to examine whether state child support enforcement affects their levels of involvement. Father involvement is measured by child support payments and visitation. The results indicate that father involvement for children in never-married mother families increased substantially over the 10-year period investigated and that effective child support enforcement significantly increased not only child support payment but also visitation for children in never-married mother families.