Purpose: Research on low-income family economic wellbeing prior to welfare reform, research suggested that for every $1 a low income mother spent, 60 cents was from public assistance, 20 cents from off the books work, and 20 cents from non-residential fathers or other family members. Yet, changes in welfare policy have eliminated entitlements to cash assistance as well as created time limits and work requirements. Given the changed policy context, this study considers low-income families' strategies for economic survival. Do earnings, child support, or other support from social networks now constitute a larger portion of low-income families' resources? This paper uses detailed in depth qualitative data to describe the patterns of private and public investments in children in low-income families.

Methods: The TLC3 study is a longitudinal qualitative study of 75 couples in three cities, all of whom are part of larger quantitative survey, which interviews parents immediately after the birth of a “focal” child. In May of 2000, TLC3 couples, who described their relationship as romantic, were recruited from New York, Chicago, and Milwaukee. The first wave of data collection occurred just after the birth of the focal child, and the final interviews were completed four years later. During individual interviews, parents were asked detailed questions about their household budgets—including the amount and sources of their household income, amount and regularity of child support (provision and receipt) and their expenditures. Interviews were transcribed and then coded for themes related to child support, economic survival strategies, as well as household expenditures and income.

Findings: The analyses take advantage of the fact that 40% of parents in the study had children from prior relationships, by using the first wave of individual interviews to explore child support arrangements and economic survival strategies among families with complex family structures. Results suggest that ¾ of fathers with children from prior relationships are providing regular financial assistance, with formal child support more common than informal support. Fathers who are not making regular payments are without the financial resources to do so. In contrast, very few of the mothers with children from previous relationships are receiving child support. These mothers instead rely on support from their new partners and family members. Shared residence with extended family, in particular, is a common arrangement. For a small portion of the sample, public assistance remains a critical form of support. However, inkind transfers such as nutrition and housing assistance are more prevalent and important than cash assistance. These finding suggest the erosion of public investments in children, and increased dependence on private support from extended families and social networks. The critical role of social support implies that social workers involved in these families must explore and engage with complex networks of exchange. Finally, the findings highlight the difficulty that poor non-custodial fathers have supporting their children, and point towards the need for interventions that strengthen their ties to the labor markets.