The relationship between child support compliance and its predictors: Evidence from two waves of LSAC data

Abstract

Joint financial responsibility for children after separation involving the payment of child support is one part of the focus of recent reforms by the Australian Government to encourage the continuing involvement of both parents in the upbringing of their children. Most Australian and international research has found a strong positive association between child support compliance and contact between children and nonresident parents. Attachment of the non-resident parent to the other parent and the child prior to separation, satisfaction with post separation parenting arrangements and low parental conflict have also shown a consistent positive association with compliance. However, in terms of the causal directions of these relationships, empirical evidence to date is limited and lacking in consistency. Using structural equation modelling techniques and data from the first two waves of Growing Up in Australia, the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) survey, this paper examines the predictors of compliance with child support obligations with an emphasis on the underlying mechanisms/interactions between child support compliance and its predictors. This work will build on preliminary analysis by the author which found frequent and scheduled contact between the child and the nonresident parent to be the strongest predictor of child support compliance. While low parental conflict and involvement of the non-resident parent in the upbringing of the child was also found to be predictive of child support compliance, instead of a having a direct relationship, the effect of these variables are mediated by contact between the child and non-resident parent.