The 1993 Survey of Income and Program Participation provides new information about nonresident fathers that is not available in any other nationally representative survey. The method developed to identify nonresident fathers from these data is indirect, but it has been validated (Sorensen 1997). We find 8 million men who self-identify as nonresident fathers in 1993. That same year, 10.2 million women self-identified as custodial mothers. Assuming equal numbers of fathers and mothers, we estimate that nearly 80 percent of nonresident fathers identify themselves in these data. This figure is substantially higher than that found in earlier research.
About 70 percent of the nonresident fathers who are missed by the 1993 SIPP were missed because they lived in prisons or military barracks, were in the military overseas, or were missed through the problem of the "undercount." The remaining 30 percent of nonresident fathers who are missed by the 1993 SIPP are actually present, but cannot be identified as nonresident fathers. We reweight the men who self-identify as nonresident fathers so that the final analysis is more representative of all nonresident fathers.
Using the reweighted data, we find that nonresident fathers, as a whole, are considerably better-off financially than custodial mothers as a whole. In 1993, nearly two-thirds of custodial mothers had family incomes below 200 percent of the poverty threshold. In contrast, nearly 60 percent of nonresident fathers had incomes above 200 percent of the poverty threshold that year. This discrepancy in the financial situation of custodial mothers and nonresident fathers suggests that there is potential for some nonresident fathers to increase the amount of support that they provide their nonresident children. Indeed, one in four nonresident fathers had an income above 200 percent of the poverty threshold in 1993 and did not contribute financially to their nonresident children.
We also find, however, that 40 percent of nonresident fathers have family incomes below 200 percent of the poverty threshold and the majority of these do not pay child support. Low-income nonresident fathers who pay support, pay a higher percentage of their income than do higher income fathers. Low-income fathers who do not pay child support tend to be considerably disadvantaged in the labor market--about half do not have a high school degree and about half have not held a job in the past 12 months. Nearly 20 percent of them are incarcerated. Increased enforcement efforts are unlikely to collect sufficient child support from low-income fathers to substantially improve their children's financial circumstances. A different approach may work better, one that emphasizes employment-related services and other support services that enable low-income fathers to improve their job skills and parenting.
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Last updated: 02/20/01