Toward a Fuller Understanding of Nonresident Father Involvement: An Examination of Child Support, in Kind Support, and Visitation

Toward a Fuller Understanding of Nonresident Father Involvement: An Examination of Child Support, In Kind Support, and Visitation

Gerald A. McIntosh

PSY-1010-LD02 General Psychology

Maurice Gatling

Prince George's Community College

Abstract

In the journal article, "Toward a Fuller Understanding of Nonresident Father Involvement: An examination of Child Support, In-Kind Support and Visitation" by Garasky, Stewardt, Gundersen, and Lohman (2012), the authors' discussed the relationships among the three aspects of father involvement that are child support, in-kind support, and visitations relates and are intertwined together. The article states, in-kind support is received by 60% of parents and is not recognized as meeting child support obligations. Relationships among child support, in-kind support, and visitation from nonresident fathers, effects the nonresident fathers involvement varying from various determinants. Economic and demographics are associated with then involvement and these relationships vary across the three types of involvement. A trivariate probit model was estimated to test the relationships among child support, in-kind support, and visitation differences by the income level of the family of the child, with a full sample, a sample of households with incomes below 200% of the poverty line (Lower Income Families Sample) and also with a sample of households with incomes at or above 200% of the poverty line (Higher Income Families Sample). The results of the research conducted were for both bivariate and multivariate results. When comparing the bivariate associations across low and high income groups revealed that involvement by the nonresident father was greater for the children residing in higher income families for nine out of 12 relationships. The multivariate results were examining the receipt of the child support, the receipt of in-kind support and visitation for the full sample, lower income and higher income samples in multiple tables listing results of the sets of variants. The full sample results indicated that the unobserved factors that positively affected the likelihood of one type of involvement by the nonresident father, after controlling for other types of involvement, and the different combinations of the variants such as visitation, child and in-kind support. In the use of the lower income family sample, positive relationships of unobserved factors between child and in-kind support, and visitation were found to be statically insignificant. In the higher income families sample a strong positive correlation between in-kind support and visitation after controlling for other factors. Statistically significant factors were found unlike the results for the lower income family sample. The research conducted was the first quantitative analysis of received by custodial mothers from nonresident fathers that specifically examined interrelationships among child support, in-kind support, and visitation using a nationally representative sample. The research was conducted to determine more statics on the receipt of in-kind support, visitation, and the relationship between these important aspects of the nonresidential father's involvement in the child's life. The dimensions of different sets of determinants varied from the resident's family income. The impacts of economic characteristics varied in the different income samples. Also, demographic characteristics of the child, mother, father, and resident household were related