Child Custody and Child Support Statistics

by Charlton Hall

Staff Writer

For the previous five weeks I have been exploring the issues pertaining to Fathers’ Rights and the Family Court System.  To conclude this six part series, here are some interesting statistics and their sources:

The following is sourced from Technical Analysis Paper No. 42, U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Income Security Policy, Oct. 1991, Authors: Meyer and Garansky:

Custodial mothers who receive a support award: 79.6%.

Custodial fathers who receive a support award: 29.9%.

Non-custodial mothers who totally default on support: 46.9%.

Non-custodial fathers who totally default on support: 26.9%.

Non-custodial mothers who pay support at any level:  20.0%

Non-custodial fathers who pay support at any level:  61.0%

Single custodial mothers who work more than 44 hours per week:  7.0%

Single custodial fathers who work more than 44 hours per week:  24.5%

Single custodial mothers who receive public assistance:  46.2%

Single custodial fathers who receive public assistance:  20.8%

From ‘Surviving the Breakup’ by Joan Berlin Kelly:

50% of mothers see no value in the father’s continued contact with his children

From ‘Frequency of Visitation’ by Stanford Braver, American Journal of Orthopsychiatry:

40% of mothers reported that they had interfered with the father’s visitation to punish their ex-husband

From Technical Analysis Paper No. 42 - U.S. DHHS - Office of Income Security Policy:

From U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports, Series P-20, Household and Family Characteristics, various years; and Marital Status and Living Arrangements:  March, 1988-1990, Nos. 433, 445, and 450:

Children in single parent families:  24% in 1992 - 7.1% in 1950

From Census Bureau report Series P-23, No. 173:

90% of the fathers with joint custody paid the support due.

44.5% of those with no visitation rights still financially support their children.

From GAO report: 1GAO/HRD-92-39 FS:

Of non-custodial fathers not paying support, 66% are not doing so because they lack the financial resources to pay.

‘Ninety percent of divorced fathers have less than full custody of their children.’ Jonathan M. Honeycutt, Ph.D.(c), M.P.A., M.A., I .P.C. Director of Research, Clinical & Consulting Psychotherapist, National Institute for Divorce Research, Panama City, Florida.

82% of mothers receive sole child custody in divorce

50% of custodial mothers routinely and actively try to sabotage father/child meetings

40% of non-custodial fathers have no legal visitation or child custody rights

11% of fathers receive sole child custody in divorce; 7% have joint custody of children in divorce.

Source : Armin A. Brott, Knight-Ridder columnist and author of The Expectant Father , 1/8/95.

Judging from these statistics, the Family Court System has a long way to go before it recognizes that a father’s role in his childrens’ lives is at least as important as a mother’s role.  Things will never change unless fathers get involved!