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Title: The Impact of Child Support on Cognitive Outcomes of Young Children
Resulting in 1 citation.
1. Argys, Laura M.
Peters, H. Elizabeth
Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne
Smith, Judith R.
The Impact of Child Support on Cognitive Outcomes of Young Children
Demography 35,2 (May 1998): 159-173.
Also: http://www.springerlink.com/content/du641383632n8048/
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Population Association of America
Keyword(s): Aid for Families with Dependent Children (AFDC); Child Support; Children, Preschool; Cognitive Development; Fathers and Children; Fathers, Absence; Intelligence; Marital Status; Parental Influences; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); Racial Differences; Variables, Instrumental; Welfare

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

We use the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-Child data to address three questions. First, does the receipt of child support have beneficial effects for children with absent fathers apart from increasing income? Second, do the effects of child support differ when child-support awards and payments are made cooperatively as opposed to being court ordered? Third, are any positive effects of child support solely a product of unmeasured differences among fathers and families? Controlling for the socioeconomic characteristics of the child and family, we find some evidence that receipt of child support has a positive impact on children's cognitive test scores over and above its contribution to total income. However, the effects vary by test, by race, and by reason for father's absence. Our results also indicate that the distinction between cooperative and noncooperative awards is important. Finally, our instrumental variables estimates show that the effects of child support persist after we control for unobserved characteristics of fathers and families.
Bibliography Citation
Argys, Laura M., H. Elizabeth Peters, Jeanne Brooks-Gunn and Judith R. Smith. "The Impact of Child Support on Cognitive Outcomes of Young Children." Demography 35,2 (May 1998): 159-173.