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In the second part of this paper we use multiple datasets to provide empirical support for the two predictions of the model and we employ an identification strategy that enables us to isolate this particular mechanism empirically. First, we use annual data on state expenditures for child support enforcement and on natality for the period 1985-1994 to estimate the impact of increasing the probability that fathers will have to pay child support on non-marital child bearing and maternal investments in children born outside marriage. We find that more stringent child support enforcement results in fewer births, especially among less educated single women, and conditional on education, a greater use of early prenatal care (a measure of the underlying propensity to invest in children) both of which suggest positive selection on mother quality....We also estimate a duration model of time to first birth for a cohort of young women of child-bearing age from the NLSY79 and find that single mothers in states with stricter child support enforcement delay the time until first birth.

These changes have created tremendous uncertainty in children's lives and have led to considerable speculation among policy makers and the public more generally about the consequences of father absence. Some analysts argue that growing up with a single mother is the primary cause of many of the country's most serious social problems, including poverty, high school dropout, teen pregnancy, and delinquency (Popenoe, 1988, 1996; Whitehead, 1993; Blankenhorn, 1995). Others argue that poverty and economic insecurity are the real culprits, causing both father absence and adolescent behavioral problems (Skolnick, 1991; Stacy, 1993). Still others claim that the problems associated with family disruption are rooted in marital discord that begins long before the parents separate or divorce.

To bring empirical evidence to bear on this debate, my colleagues and I have been analyzing several large, nationally representative surveys that contain information on children's family structure growing up as well as their educational attainment and social adjustment in young adulthood. In this chapter, I summarize the major findings from this work as it pertains to the following questions:

Are children raised apart from their biological fathers worse off than children raised by both parents?
How large are the differences and which groups of children are most affected?
What factors account for the lower achievement of children in one-parent families? What factors are associated with resilience?
And finally, Do differences in children's wellbeing predate family disruption or are they are a consequence of father absence?

Our investigation has been going on for over 10 years now and covers more than 10 data sets. The most important of these are the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), the High School and Beyond Study (HSB), and the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH). All of these surveys are large enough to allow us to distinguish among different types of single parent families, including families headed by never-married mothers as well as families headed by divorced or separated mothers and remarried mothers. These surveys also allow us to compare differences between boys and girls raised in one- and two-parent families as well as differences between children of different racial and ethnic backgrounds and different social classes.

To summarize briefly, we find that children who grow up apart from their biological fathers do less well, on average, than children who grow up with both natural parents. They are less likely to finish high school and attend college, less likely to find and keep a steady job, and more likely to become teen mothers. The differences are not huge. Indeed, most children who grow up with a single parent do quite well. Nor are they large enough to support the claim that father absence is the major cause of our country's most serious social problems. However, the differences between children in one- and two-parent families are not so small as to be inconsequential, and there is fairly good evidence that father absence per se is responsible for at least some of them.

NLSY 79 data is used to establish that about half of unmarried parents who are cohabiting at birth are still living together after six years.