Ilyar Heydari Barardehi and Patryck Babiarz, Journal of Marriage and Family, November 2026.
Abstract
Objective
This study investigates whether the receipt of child support is associated with adolescents' likelihood of completing high school and doing so on time among youth raised in single-parent households.
Background
Children growing up in single-parent families, particularly, those headed by single mothers, face elevated risks of economic and educational disadvantages. Prior research shows that child support improves children's cognitive and socioemotional development in early and middle childhood, yet evidence on its association with longer-term educational attainment remains limited.
Methods
Using data from the 1997 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, we analyze a sample of 1931 youth who either received child support or were eligible to receive it. Outcomes include timely high school graduation and high school diploma attainment. We estimate logistic regression models and augmented inverse probability weighted models to compare educational outcomes between child support recipients and eligible nonrecipients. Additional heterogeneity analyses by parental education and sensitivity checks are conducted.
Results
Youth who received child support were both more likely to graduate from high school on time and to eventually earn a high school diploma compared to nonrecipients. These differences were not observed among adolescents in socioeconomically disadvantaged single-parent households.
Conclusion
Child support receipt is associated with more favorable educational trajectories for some adolescents in single-parent families, particularly with respect to timely and conventional high school completion.