IMPROVING PARENTAL PARTNERSHIPS IN LOW-INCOME FAMILIES AS A MEANS FORINCREASING NONCUSTODIAL PARENTAL COMPLIANCE WITH CHILD-SUPPORT ORDERS- A RESEARCH REPORT

This article reports evaluation results from a federally funded projec t designed to improve the co-parenting relationship between custodial and noncustodial parents. The project was hypothesized mat improving t his relationship would result in increased voluntary compliance with c hild support orders. Results indicate that, although numerous strategi es to involve noncustodial parents in the program were employed, virtu ally none was successful. Although there was a slight increase in comp liance with child support orders for participant families, this was no t thought to he a result of program participation and did not have a p ositive impact on income level of participant families. Further, the q uarterly income of the participant families fell dramatically over the course of the program. Discussion focuses on the flaws in family poli cy that contribute to the failure of the parental partnership concept for low-income families.