TIME-SERIES ANALYSIS OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF CHILD-SUPPORT ENFORCEMENT POLICIES IN FEDERAL REGION V STATES

This study examines the impact legislation, such as the Family Support Act of 1988, Child Support Recovery Act of 1992 and Ted Weiss Child S upport Enforcement Act of 1992 had on child support enforcement in Fed eral Region V states (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, an d Wisconsin). These pieces of legislation authorize coercive means to force noncustodial parents to meet their child support obligations. Ch ild support is the money noncustodial parents are obligated to pay for the support of their children on a monthly basis. Child support laws have been enacted to increase the number of noncustodial parents locat ed, paternities established, child support orders issued, and child su pport payments. Social and economic factors that help to explain state variations in child support collections are also analyzed. Time serie s analysis was applied to secondary data collected from 1984-1994. The data was collapsed into two periods 1984-1988 and 1989-1994 in order to determine if legislation enacted after 1988 had an effect on child support enforcement in Federal Region V. The results from this study i ndicate that certain variables had the greatest impact on child suppor t enforcement in each state in Federal Region V. The findings from thi s study provide beneficial strategies which may enhance current child support enforcement practices.