One of my main research interests in the past few years has been lone parents’ wellbeing and child support policies around the world, which I have had the priviledge to study with professor Mia Hakovirta and other great scholars working on families’ wellbeing and child support systems. We have published studies on the effectiveness of child support policies in reducing poverty (here), how child support interacts with social assistant schemes (here) and the role of child support in lone mothers’ income (here).
I was honoured to hear that this year Mia and I were awarded with the prize for Excellence in Social Policy Scholarship for JICSP for our article ”Lone mothers and child support receipt in 21 European countries”.
In the article, we studied cross-country differences in the prevalence and amount of child support received, and the determinants of child support receipt among lone mothers across countries. For the analysis, we used 2017–2018 European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-Silc) data.
Our analysis revealed that the proportion of lone-mother families receiving child support varied significantly across countries and a substantial proportion of lone-mother families in the 21 European countries did not receive child support. The highest child support receipt rates were found in the Czech Republic, Denmark and Austria. These countries also had a high gender wage gap, ie. men had higher earnings than women.
We also found significant variation in who receives child support. Socioeconomic differences in child support receipt were generally most marked in countries where child support receipt was less prevalent. Low socioeconomic status was a common barrier to child support receipt in most countries, and lone mothers faced similar challenges in pursuing child support. It may be that when fathers are disadvantaged, they cannot provide economic resources for their children. Thus, it seems that current child support policies work for families with more resources and less well for disadvantaged families. In some countries, the state provides some financial support if a non-resident parent is not paying countries. In these countries, lone mothers are in a better position, as the state provides support in case of non-compliance. Also, expectations for child support may differ in a separated family in which both parents have equal caring responsibilities. In earner-carer countries, equal caring responsibilities between parents combined with equal earning responsibilities mean that the need for financial transfers is smaller.
Interested in knowing more? Read the whole article here
Reference
Hakovirta, M., & Mesiäislehto, M. (2022). Lone mothers and child support receipt in 21 European countries. Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy, 38(1), 36-56.
Merita Mesiäislehto, PhD 