Wisconsin Family Impact Seminars 9 Child Support and Children’s Well-Being1

igh on the political agenda of policymakers from across the political spectrum is an issue of central importance to families—child support re-form. This briefing report addresses how parents who live apart from their children divide the responsibility for taking care of them and the economic and noneconomic effects of these arrangements on the children. The report fo-cuses on the causes and effects of child support. Our intent is to provide an over-view of the growing number of studies on child support, custody, and visitation. We present information necessary to help evaluate broadly the effects of child support on children, their mothers, and their fathers. The effects of child support are sometimes different for children than for their parents, and sometimes differ-ent for mothers than for fathers. Any decision about child support policy requires balancing the competing interests of children, mothers, fathers, and the state. Be-cause children are the weakest party among those with competing interests, they are the primary focus of this report. We emphasize their economic needs because these needs motivate recent child support reforms. Moreover, financial strain af