Originally published August 6 2005
Dads who know their status are more apt to provide support
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
A study has been released showing that support is provided earlier from men for their children if paternity is established in the hospital after birth.
Among unwed parents, fathers whose paternity is established in the hospital, rather than after their newborn's mother is discharged, are more likely to support the child and to be involved in the child's life, new study findings show.
"We now have an effective way that establishes a basis in the future to get child support should the parents later fall out and be unwilling to share financial responsibilities," study author Dr. Ronald Mincy, of Columbia University in New York City, told Reuters Health.
Since 1967, Congress has passed amendments to the Social Security Act, including provisions geared toward increasing the establishment of paternity for children born to unwed parents, to limit the increasing numbers of individuals receiving welfare.
In 1993, the effort was strengthened via a new federal act that requires hospitals to establish in-hospital paternity acknowledgment programs.
Three years later, the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act further raised the goals of paternity establishment, and increased financial penalties, by requiring states to prohibit men from having their names on a child's birth certificate without first signing a document acknowledging his paternity.
Based on the women's responses, more than three quarters of the unmarried fathers had seen their child during the previous month, and a similar proportion had had at least one overnight visit since their child's birth.
Surprisingly, the researchers note, high levels of parental involvement were reported for not only resident fathers, but also for those who did not live with their child's mother.
Fathers whose paternity was established in the hospital were more likely to have seen their child during the previous 30 days than those whose paternity was established at a later time or whose paternity was never established.
These fathers were also more likely to pay some child support, Mincy and his team report in the August issue of the Journal of Marriage and Family.
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