Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T07:05:57.131Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Lone mothers and child support receipt in 21 European countries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 January 2022

Mia Hakovirta Open the ORCID record for Mia Hakovirta [Opens in a new window]  and
Merita Mesiäislehto Open the ORCID record for Merita Mesiäislehto [Opens in a new window]
Mia Hakovirta*
Affiliation:
INVEST Research Flagship Center, Department of Social Research, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
Merita Mesiäislehto
Affiliation:
Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland
*
Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

With increasing trends in divorce, separation and multi-partner fertility, more families have become subject to child support policies. This paper explores child support receipt in 21 European countries using 2017–2018 European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions data. We investigated: (1) cross-country differences in the prevalence and amount of child support received and (2) the determinants of child support receipt among lone mothers across countries. We found that the proportion of lone-mother families receiving child support ranged from 16 per cent in Luxembourg to 75 per cent in the Czech Republic, with large variations in the amount of child support received. Our results suggested that the socioeconomic characteristics of lone mothers, including marital status, education, employment status, number of children and income, were associated with the likelihood of receiving child support in most countries but these associations varied significantly across countries.

Keywords

child supportchild maintenancelone mothersEU-SILC
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy , Volume 38 , Issue 1 , March 2022 , pp. 36 - 56
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Social Policy Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bartfeld, J., & Meyer, D.R. (2003). Child support compliance among discretionary and nondiscretionary obligors. Social Service Review, 77(3), 347–372.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bernandi, L., Mortelmans, D., & Larenza, O. (2018). Changing lone parents, changing life courses. In Bernandi, L., & Mortelmans, D. (Eds.), Lone parenthood in the life course. Life Course Research and Social Policies (pp. 1–26). Berlin: Springer Open.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bianchi, S., Cohen, P. N., Raley, S., & Nomaguchi, K. (2004). Inequality in parental investment in child-rearing: Expenditures, time, and health. In Neckerman, K. (Ed.), Social inequality (pp. 189–220). New York: Sage.Google Scholar
Bradshaw, J., Keung, A., & Chzhen, Y. (2018). Cash benefits and poverty in single-parent families. In Nieuwenhuis, R. and Maldonado, L. (Eds.), The triple bind of single-parent families: Resources, employment and policies to improve well-being (pp. 337–358). Bristol: Policy Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cancian, M., & Meyer, D. R. (2018). Reforming policy for single-parent families to reduce child poverty. Journal of the Social Sciences, 4(2), 91–112.Google Scholar
Case, A., Lin, I. F., & McLanahan, S. (2003). Explaining trends in child support: Economic, demographic and policy effects. Demography, 40(1), 171–189.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chung, Y., & Kim, Y. (2019). Do cultural and policy contexts matter to child support policy? A case study of child support receipt in Korea and the United States. Children and Youth Services Review, 96(1), 237–249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cuesta, L., Hakovirta, M., & Jokela, M. (2018). The antipoverty effectiveness of child support: Empirical evidence for Latin American countries. Social Policy & Administration, 52(6), 1233–1251.Google Scholar
Cuesta, L., Jokela, M., Hakovirta, M., & Malerba, H. (2019) Who receives child support in Latin America? A comparative analysis of seven countries. Paper prepared for delivery at the Society for Social Work and Research 23rd Annual Conference, San Francisco, CA, January 16–20, 2019.Google Scholar
Cuesta, L. & Meyer, D. R. (2012). Child support receipt: Does context matter? A comparative analysis of Colombia and the United States. Children and Youth Services Review, 34(9), 1876–1883.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Vaus, D., Gray, M., Qu, L., & Stanton, D. (2017). The economic consequences of divorce in six OECD countries. Australian Journal of Social Issues, 52(2), 180–199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duvander, A. Z. & Jans, A. C. (2009). Consequences of fathers’ parental leave use: Evidence from Sweden. Finnish Yearbook of Population Research, 44, 49–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eurostat. (2021). Gender wage gap. Available at https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Gender_pay_gap_statistics (Accessed on 22 March 2021).Google Scholar
Garfinkel, I., Glei, D., & McLanahan, S. (2002). Assortative mating among unmarried parents: Implications for ability to pay child support. Journal of Population Economics, 15(3), 417–432.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Global Gender gap report (2021), Geneva:World Economic Forum.Google Scholar
Ha, Y., Cancian, M., & Meyer, D. R. (2018). Child support and income inequality. Poverty & Public Policy, 10(2), 147–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hakovirta, M. (2011) Child maintenance and child poverty. Journal of Poverty and Social Justice, 19(3), 249–262.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hakovirta, M., & Jokela, M. (2019) Contribution of child maintenance to lone mothers’ income in five countries. Journal of European Social Policy, 29(2), 257–272.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hakovirta, M., Meyer, D. R. & Skinner, C. (2019) Does paying child support impoverish fathers in the United States, Finland, and the United Kingdom? Children and Youth Services Review, 106, 104485.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hakovirta, M., Meyer, D. R., & Skinner, C. (2021). Child support in shared care cases: Do child support policies in 13 countries reflect family policy models? Social Policy and Society, 1–18. http://doi.org/10.1017/S1474746421000300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hakovirta, M. & Skinner, C. (2021) A comparative analysis of shared physical custody and child maintenance. In Bernardi, L. & Mortelmans, D. (Eds.), Shared physical custody: Interdisciplinary theoretical and empirical insights in custody arrangements. Cham: Springer.Google Scholar
Haux, T., & Platt, L. (2021). Fathers’ involvement with their children before and after separation. European Journal of Population, 37(1), 151–177.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Huang, C. C. (2009). Trends in child support from 1994 to 2004: Does child support enforcement work? Journal of Policy Practice, 9 (1), 36–53CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, Y., & Chung, Y. (2020). Child support receipt among divorced mothers in Korea: Changes after the 2007 policy reform. Children and Youth Services Review, 119, 105446.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maldonado, L., & Nieuwenhuis, R. (2015). Family policies and single parent poverty in 18 OECD countries, 1978–2008. Community, Work & Family, 18(4), 395–415.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maslauskaitė, A., & Tereškinas, A. (2017). Involving nonresident Lithuanian fathers in child-rearing: The negative impact of income inequalities and sociolegal policies. Men and Masculinities, 20(5), 609–629.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyer, D. R, Cancian, M., & Cook, S. (2005). Multiple‐partner fertility: Incidence and implications for child support policy. Social Service Review, 79(4), 577–601.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyer, D. R., & Hu, M. (1999). A note on the antipoverty effectiveness of child support among mother-only families. Journal of Human Resources, 34(1), 225–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mortelmans, D (Ed.). (2020). Divorce in Europe. New insights in trends, causes and consequences of relation break-ups. Cham: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nepomnyaschy, L., Magnuson, K., & Berger, L. M. (2012). Child support and young children’s development. The Social Service Review, 86(1), 3–35.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nieuwenhuis, R. (2020). The situation of single parents in the EU. Brussels: European Parliament.Google Scholar
Nieuwenhuis, R., & Maldonado, L. (2018). The triple bind of single-parent families: Resources, employment and policies to improve well-being. Bristol: Policy Press.Google Scholar
OECD. (2021). Family policy database. Available at http://www.oecd.org/els/family/database.htm (Accessed on 19 February 2021).Google Scholar
Ríos-Salas, V., & Meyer, D. R. (2014). Single mothers and child support receipt in Peru. Journal of Family Studies, 20(3), 298–310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robins, P. K. (1992). Why did child support award levels decline from 1978 to 1985? Journal of Human Resources, 27(1), 362–379.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skinner, C., Bradshaw, J., & Davidson, J. (2007). Child support policy: An international perspective. (Report No. 405). United Kingdom: Department for Work and Pensions.Google Scholar
Skinner, C., Cook, K., & Sinclair, S. (2017). The potential of child support to reduce lone mother poverty: Comparing population survey data in Australia and the UK. Journal of Poverty and Social Justice, 25(1), 79–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skinner, C., & Hakovirta, M. (2020). Separated families and child support policies in times of social change: A comparative analysis. In Nieuwenhuis, R. & Van Lanckers, W. (Eds.), The Palgrave handbook of family policy (pp. 267–301). London: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skinner, C., & Meyer, D.R. (2006). After all the policy reform, is child support actually helping low-income mothers? Benefits, 14(3), 209–222.Google Scholar
Sorensen, E., & Hill, A. (2004). Single mothers and their child-support receipt: How well is child support enforcement doing? Journal of Human Resources, 39(1), 135–154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steinbach, A., Augustijn, L., & Corkadi, G. (2020). Joint physical custody and adolescents’ life satisfaction in 37 North American and European countries’, Family Process, 60, 145–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Uunk, W. (2004). The economic consequences of divorce for women in the European Union: The impact of welfare state arrangements. European Journal of Population, 20(3), 251–285.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vnuk, M. (2019). Keeping mum: Characteristics and family dynamics of mothers who are liable to pay child support in Australia. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 40(1), 127–142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vogel, L. K. (2020). Barriers to meeting formal child support obligations: Noncustodial father perspectives, Children and Youth Services Review, 110, 104764.CrossRefGoogle Scholar