Providing after prison: Nonresident fathers' formal and informal contributions to children

TY - JOUR

T1 - Providing after prison

T2 - Nonresident fathers' formal and informal contributions to children

AU - Emory, Allison Dwyer

AU - Nepomnyaschy, Lenna

AU - Waller, Maureen R.

AU - Miller, Daniel P.

AU - Haralampoudis, Alexandra

N1 - Funding Information: This research was supported by generous funding from the William T. Grant Foundation, the Fatherhood Research and Practice Network, and the Cornell Institute for the Social Sciences. We are also grateful for the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study Data Workshop, which is supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (R25HD074544 and R01HD036916). We appreciate the data collection efforts of Loren Greene, Shreya Reddy, and Margaret Thomas. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of our funders. Publisher Copyright: © 2020 Russell Sage Foundation.

PY - 2020/3/1

Y1 - 2020/3/1

N2 - Incarceration among young, minority, economically disadvantaged men is pervasive in the United States and can impair their employment prospects. Because many of these men are fathers, incarceration also has serious implications for their ability to support their children. This article investigates the associations between incarceration and nonresident fathers' cash and in-kind contributions to their children's household economy. It then examines whether policies intended to protect employment opportunities mitigate the potential costs of incarceration for nonresident fathers' economic support of their children. Using longitudinal data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study and new state policy data, we find that paternal incarceration reduces formal and informal support and that some policies offset the incarceration penalty, but clear differences by fathers' race emerge.

AB - Incarceration among young, minority, economically disadvantaged men is pervasive in the United States and can impair their employment prospects. Because many of these men are fathers, incarceration also has serious implications for their ability to support their children. This article investigates the associations between incarceration and nonresident fathers' cash and in-kind contributions to their children's household economy. It then examines whether policies intended to protect employment opportunities mitigate the potential costs of incarceration for nonresident fathers' economic support of their children. Using longitudinal data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study and new state policy data, we find that paternal incarceration reduces formal and informal support and that some policies offset the incarceration penalty, but clear differences by fathers' race emerge.

KW - Child support

KW - Incarceration

KW - Informal support

KW - Nonresident fathers

KW - Public policy

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85089659206&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85089659206&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - https://doi.org/10.7758/RSF.2020.6.1.04

DO - https://doi.org/10.7758/RSF.2020.6.1.04

M3 - Article

SN - 2377-8253

VL - 6

SP - 84

EP - 112

JO - RSF

JF - RSF

IS - 1

ER -