Legal term describing the failure of a non-custodial parent to provide support to his or her children according to the terms approved by a court of law.

An enduring issue that has received increasing attention since the 1970s, abandonment refers to non-custodial parents who do not fulfill court-ordered financial responsibilities to their children, regardless of their involvement in their children's lives in other ways. Lack of such support is blamed for substantial poverty among single-parent families.

In 1993 it was estimated that up to 27% of children in the United States, representing 11.5 million families, lived in single-parent households headed by women. Fewer than half received any financial support from the non-custodial parent. The income of more than a third of these households fell below the poverty level. The term "deadbeat dads" is often used in discussions about abandonment because most of the parents involved are fathers.

An increasing divorce rate...