The Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education and Issues in Science and Technology magazine are pleased to announce that Dr. Kathryn Edin will give the fall 2017 Henry and Bryna David lecture on Thursday, October 26, 2017 at 5:00 p.m. at the National Union Building, 918 F St., NW, Washington, DC (directions). Dr. Edin will address how to strengthen child support in the age of complex families.
Family instability and complexity have grown dramatically in the U.S. in recent decades, trends that are concentrated among the most disadvantaged of our citizens. Child support is critical and our policies are ill-equipped to handle the reality of today’s families. Drawing on more than 400 in-depth interviews with low-income noncustodial fathers in four locales, Edin argues that child support is the key institution to insuring resources flow from the noncustodial parent to the child and that it must deliver as many paternal resources—both material and socioemotional—to children as possible through strengthening co-parenting relationships and father-child bonds.
Edin is the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of sociology and public Health at Johns Hopkins University and is one of the nation’s leading poverty researchers. Author of 8 books and some 60 journal articles, her 2015 book, $2.00 a Day: The Art of Living on Virtually Nothing in America was met with wide critical acclaim and was included in the New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2015.
