Caring and Paying:

What Fathers and Mothers Say About Child Support

A Report Prepared for the Parents’ Fair Share Demonstration

Prepared by:
Frank F. Furstenberg, Jr.
Kay E. Sherwood
Mercer L. Sullivan
Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation

May 1992

This report is available on the Internet at:
http://fatherhood.hhs.gov/pfs92/index.htm

Obtaining a printed copy

Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments

Sections

1. Introduction
   • The Problem: Child Poverty
   • A Response: Combining Opportunities to Work with Child Support Obligations
   • The Structure of the Report
2. Noncustodial Fathers' Attitudes and Behaviors
   • The Harlem and Brownsville Groups
   • The Queens Group
   • Implications for Policy and Parents' Fair Share
   • Selected Background Reading for Section II
3. Daddies and Fathers: Men Who Do For Their Children and Men Who Don't
   • One Case
   • "Doing for Your Children"
   • Techniques of Neutralization
   • Women's Views of Men's Accounts for Why They Don't Help Out
   • Gender Mistrust
   • Preparation for Parenthood
   • Weak Ties and Unstable Bonds: Relations Between Parents
   • Impressions of the Child Support System
   • Implications for Policy and Parents' Fair Share
4. Child Support Obligations: What Fathers Say About Paying
   • I Would If I Could
   • When Money Isn't the Issue
5. Conclusion

To obtain a printed copy of this report:

Send or fax your name and address, and the title of the report, to:

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Last updated: 03/26/01