Child Support Awards

Child support is an important factor in the financial well-being of divorced mothers who have dependent children. Although the financial effects of child support awards have been studied for a number of groups, they have not typically been explored inrelation to "in-kind" income factors such as insurance payments that may be part of a divorce settlement. Data on divorce awards were collected from court records. Child support awards were examined to determine which factors influence the likelihood of award and the amount of child support awarded. Factors which were found to differentially influence amount of child support awarded were home ownership, award of alimony, length of marriage and award of in-kind income.