
Privileging biological or residential obligations in separated families: child maintenance policy approaches in 12 countries
Children's living arrangements have become increasingly complex over the last decades, with more children born to parents who do not live together and, even among those born to parents who do live together, increasing numbers are experiencing their parents separating and one or both
re-partnering. These changes raise questions about who has financial responsibility for the children. In this article we conceptualise how different child maintenance schemes might deal with six common family transitions, focusing on the extent to which responsibilities are organised according
to biology or residence. We then investigate the child maintenance policies in place in 12 countries, and use the results to categorise countries into five child maintenance schemes. Finally, we compare the child maintenance scheme with the level of family complexity in each country to see
if countries with the highest levels of complexity tend to organise responsibility differently.
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Keywords: CHILD MAINTENANCE; COMPARATIVE POLICY
Document Type: Research Article
Affiliations: 1: Email: [email protected] 2: Email: [email protected]
Publication date: March 2016
Families, Relationships and Societies (FRS) is a social science journal designed to advance scholarship and debate in the growing field of families and relationships across the life course. It explores family life, relationships and generational issues from interdisciplinary, social science perspectives, whilst maintaining a solid grounding in sociological theory and methods and a strong policy and practice focus.
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