NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
CHILD SUPPORT What happens to the children of a dissolving marriage? Their fate is heavily dependent upon what the mother and father decide, although the decision of the parents is subject to approval by the judge before whom the divorce proceeding is brought. Circumstances vary so much that any generalization is likely to be misleading. It probably remains true that a majority of judges with experience in matrimonial cases share the traditional conviction that women should be given legal custody of children, especially of young children. Nevertheless, fathers are increasingly seeking, and gaining, custody, even when the mother is competent to care for the children.
When the father and mother disagree on custody, the judge may often require a detailed report from a probation officer on the relative merits of the parents. This paper looks into the child support that so often beset couples on the brink of separation or divorce. The paper will look at another angle of this issue, and that is looking at child support as a means of holding people hostage. Does it keep people at a state wherein they become immobilized because of the irrationality of the demand, and if indeed they are paying or receiving support for the children, are both parties engaged in some kind of manipulation in order to get what they actually want from the situation. The Universal Child Support Benefit is a new form of direct financial assistance of $ 100 a month for each child under the age of six. This support is paid to the childs primary caregiver and is considered income which is under the Income Tax Act.
This is taxable in the hands of the spouse who possesses the lower net income, regardless of which spouse or partner received the payments (Amendments to the Federal Child Support Guidelines). It is important to note at this point that before the Federal Guidelines were amended (on April 1, 2007), the UCCB still has the provision of being included in a spouse's income in all situations particularly in those instances involving a child support amount. This means that the UCCB used for one child's benefit would have been considered in determining the child support amount to be paid for another child. When this circumstance is allowed to happen, it would have been inconsistent with the objectives of both the UCCB and the Federal Guidelines. This is the reason why the law was amended. (Amendments to the Federal Child Support Guidelines). Despite gaining popularity in both houses of Congress, legislation to increase child-support collections has come to a halt on Capitol Hill, a victim of election-year politics and disputes over bigger questions concerning welfare policy.
Some lawmakers contend that Congress must approve a bill that would establish new penalties for deadbeat parents and create a nationwide computerized system to help collect child support. (Pear, 1996). However, Republican leaders and White House officials know that they can take advantage of the measure's popularity and include it in a comprehensive welfare bill. In fact, the proposals are slated to benefit millions of women who are not on welfare. (Pear, 1996). The proposals in question have been formulated in order to collect child support that often goes unpaid, particularly when parents and children live in different states.
The bill stipulates that the Federal Government would establish a national data bank of all child-support orders and a separate data bank showing the name, address and employer of every person hired in the United States after Oct. 1, 1997. (Pear, 1996). Looking at it from an angle where the parents are coming from, they may react to these issues and have some reservations about what it truly involves. Things are just different in many ways from what they used to be. Parents seem to be more challenged today than ever before in trying to figure out what being a parent is all about and what they ought to be doing if they have decided to call it quits.
One response people make to a current problem situation is to wishfully think back to simpler times. For example, back in the good old colonial days, being a parent and raising kids seemed a lot clearer. The basic issues that families had to deal with were survival-oriented getting enough food, hoping the crop would grow, avoiding getting sick and praying you would survive if you did. The colonial family was more self-contained, and the community shared values relatively in common. There were specific behaviors that were acceptable and unacceptable, and children were taught the differences between the two in a very direct fashion. Children were limited in the scope of their experiences and were experientially locked into their families and communities.
There is considerable controversy throughout the literature on the long-range damage of divorce on children. On the one hand, it is suggested that a grossly conflicted home environment can be more destructive than divorce. (Kalter). On the other hand, those researchers who have been most intimately involved with children take a strong position that divorce is always an emotional disaster for children. A recent epidemiological study of children referred for out-patient psychiatric evaluation found that children of divorce appeared at nearly twice the rate of their occurrence in the general population. (Kalter). However, no attempt was made in that study to determine the percentage of disturbed children who were living in unhappy, intact homes. In a survey by Eley, T and co-authors (Eley et al) the links between parental familial vulnerability to depression and the role of associated parental characteristics on severe adolescent depressive symptoms were examined.
Parents can therefore use this emotional element in order to appeal his / her case so that the child would be on her side. Links between parental familial vulnerability and family environment were examined. Questionnaires were obtained from 1, 294 parents of 1, 818 adolescent offspring. Results showed that the odds of severe adolescent depressive symptoms increased by a factor of 1. 5 per standard deviation increase in parental familial vulnerability to depression (odds ratio [OR] = 1. 50).
Parental BMI (OR = 1. 05) and educational level (OR = 2. 60) had significant influences independent of parental vulnerability. The analyses revealed a significant interaction such that those with high parental familial vulnerability, whose parents also had no qualifications, had a threefold risk of severe depressive symptoms. The study concluded that indeed, adolescents with a family history of depression whose parents also lack qualifications may be a target for intervention. (ibid). In many other studies which have been conducted, researchers have suggested that family cohesion is related to several psychological outcomes, including depressive symptoms. Depressed adolescents seem to have a more negative thinking of their families than the other adolescents.
The more depressed the young person, the more negative are his perceptions of the way in which his family functions. One can just imagine if divorce was the issue in that family. Specifically, depressed adolescents describe their parents as distant, un supportive and emotionally unavailable. There are voices of concern for the plight of the family and the childrens dealings with parents during a child support case. The child must be considered well in situations like these. It seems that each generation views with alarm the changes it experiences, the perceived disrespect of the young, and the potential disintegration of the family.
Each generation feels that its pressures and problems are somehow more severe than those of previous generations. The doom of the family and society is predicted over and over again for many years now. There are some negatives that are readily apparent today. Economic pressures are acute on many parents who are clamoring for child support.
Divorce rates are soaring, as are teenage pregnancies. Drug abuse is a problem, children are running away from home; and once again the city of doom for society and the family is being raised. These may well be more difficult times, but in many ways, these are better times too. The rights and protection of children are becoming important community and national values. The increase in the numbers of children being placed in foster homes is a positive reflection of the increasing care our society has for children and of its willingness to remove them from physically and psychologically harmful settings. Childhood is not seen by many as something you rush the child through but rather as something you enrich through appreciation of the importance of childhood experiences.
The family unit of today is changing in response to changes occurring in the larger society. Strains that affect the culture are reflected in strains experienced within the family. There are a number of influences of change in the larger society on family structure and functioning. Indeed, after divorce, this is one of the biggest worries of a parent.
Child support can seem like one is in a hostage situation. The question of who will obtain custody of the child and how child support will be distributed are two of the most delicate questions the couple must address. A child support lawyer can address this problem but he too may find it difficult when he goes into the details of it. The child support schedule is usually contested by both parties.
It is always best that the parties involved have a basic trust with which to start negotiations from the very start. The rapid pace of social change may present the most serious implications for family life in the future. The period of the 1950 s and 1960 s saw much rapid social change that has affected family functioning today. The social ferment of this period gave rise to the feeling, according to these writers, that ones generation knowledge and perspectives are irrelevant for the next. If this is actually the case, then there is a partial explanation for the changes in attitudes toward parenting and the motivations people many have to become parents today. Certain individuals are unsure of how to function effectively as parents.
The wide variety of strategies of parenting available to parents today is one indication that there is the need for educated guidance and assistance in this role. A greater curiosity about information on human development has also cause a wide exploration of these strategies. Writers suggest that the challenge of contemporary parenting is to keep the burden of obsolete knowledge of the past from interfering with the necessary changes that are occurring and will occur in the future. The question is raised by these writers of how parents can teach children to be open to new knowledge and experiences throughout their lives. Works Cited Amendments to the Federal Child Support Guidelines related to the Universal Child Care Benefit. Article Retrieved April 23, 2008 at: web Anthony, J. (ed).
Children at risk from divorce: A review, The child in his family: Children at psychiatric risk. New York: Wiley, 1974. Eley, T. C. ; Liang, H.
M. A. ; Plain, R... ; Sham, P... ; Sterne, A... ; Williamson, R. M. SC. ; Purcell, S. Parental Familial Vulnerability, Family Environment, and Their Interactions as Predictors of Depressive Symptoms in Adolescents. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. 43 (3): 298 - 306, Article Retrieved April 23, 2008 at: web Kalter, N.
Children of divorce in an outpatient psychiatric population. Pear, Robert. A Popular Child Support Bill is Being Stalled by Politics. May 12, 1996.
Article Retrieved April 23, 2008 at: web
Free research essays on topics related to: depressive symptoms, child support, social change, family environment, larger society
Research essay sample on Depressive Symptoms Child Support
