This article assesses the effectiveness of in-hospital paternity establishment, a federal requirement since 1993. We avoid biases in previous studies by using a national sample of nonmarital births (N= 3,254), by including detailed controls for characteristics of unwed mothers and previously unavailable controls for characteristics of fathers, and…

The unions of unwed parents are referred to as "fragile families" because they are similar to traditional families in many respects, but are more vulnerable. The Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFS) is designed to study such families by following a new birth cohort of approximately 4,700 children, including 3,600 children…

Stricter child support enforcement may reduce unwed childbearing by raising the costs of fatherhood. The authors investigate this hypothesis using a sample of young women from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, to which they add information on state child support enforcement. Models of the probability of a teenage premarital birth and of…

This paper summarizes a collection of papers in a special issue that examines what resources and capabilities parents likely to be affected by Temporary Assistance for Needy Families have; whether these parents are likely to be good parents; the nature of parents' relationships and whether they will be able to cooperate in raising their children;…