Multiple-partner fertility: Incidence and implications for child support policy

DR Meyer, M Cancian, ST Cook - Social Service Review, 2005 - journals.uchicago.edu
DR Meyer, M Cancian, ST Cook
Social Service Review, 2005journals.uchicago.edu
Family complexity that results when adults have children with multiple partners (multiple-
partner fertility) is quite common. It also has important implications for understanding child
support outcomes and for designing and evaluating welfare and family policy. Using a
unique set of merged administrative data, this article provides the first comprehensive
documentation of levels of family complexity among a broad sample of welfare recipients.
The analyses suggest that family complexity is very common and also that complexity is …
Family complexity that results when adults have children with multiple partners (multiple‐partner fertility) is quite common. It also has important implications for understanding child support outcomes and for designing and evaluating welfare and family policy. Using a unique set of merged administrative data, this article provides the first comprehensive documentation of levels of family complexity among a broad sample of welfare recipients. The analyses suggest that family complexity is very common and also that complexity is associated with systematically different child support outcomes.
The University of Chicago Press