Alimony: An Anomaly in Family Social Science*

• Published date: 01 October 2002
• Author: Erica Owens,Constance L. Shehan,Felix M. Berardo,Donna H. Berardo
• Date: 01 October 2002
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3729.2002.00308.x

308 Family Relations

Special Collection

Alimony: An Anomaly in Family Social Science*

Constance L. Shehan, Felix M. Berardo, Erica Owens, and Donna H. Berardo**

One area of family law that has generated considerable public discourse but has received relatively little attention in the social science

literature is the awarding of alimony. Because of the paucity of research in this area, we are left with little information about the

impact of these support awards and payments on the emotional and economic dynamics between former spouses. In this article, we

outline key issues associated with spousal support and call for research on the implications of this neglected aspect of domestic

relations.

Legal scholars have long noted that few aspects of the law,

especially in terms of application, can be neatly catego-

rized as either black or white. Rather, the majority of

laws, based upon judicial precedent and interpretation, tend to

fall into a wide gray area subject to circumstance and changing

social mores. Perhaps this chameleon-like character of our legal

doctrines is most apparent in domestic law, particularly marital

dissolution and spousal-child support. As Foote (1966) noted

decades ago:

There is scarcely any branch of family law that illustrates

more graphically the characteristic gap between the law on

the books and the law in action than the enforcement of

support. Troublesome as are some of the legal doctrines,

they barely give an inkling of the practical diff‌iculties that

lie beneath the surface. (p. 936)

This article focuses on one of the more controversial and

emotional outcomes of marital dissolution, the awarding of ali-

mony. This type of post-divorce reallocation of assets also is

referred to by a variety of other terms, including separate main-

tenance, spousal support, and compensatory payment. Reliable

information on the prevalence of alimony is diff‌icult to obtain.

The most accurate national data come from the U.S. Bureau of

the Census (2000). In relative terms, alimony awards are cur-

rently—and have historically been—rare in the United States.

The proportion of divorces in which it has been awarded has

seldom exceeded 15% (Kelly & Fox, 1993). In absolute terms,

however, alimony awards take on more signif‌icance. Given that

more than one million divorces have occurred in the United

States every year for the past 20 years, the annual number of

marriages affected would reach at least 150,000. When children

as well as their divorced parents are included, the individuals

involved could be several times higher. Because the types of

alimony and the amounts typically awarded vary considerably

from state to state according to existing statutes, local customs,

and extent of migratory divorce, among other factors, estimating

the true incidence and signif‌icance of alimony is extremely dif-

f‌icult.

Our purpose is to outline key issues associated with spousal

support and to raise a number of questions with respect to the

social consequences and implications of such awards for fami-

lies. We provide an overview of the historical background and

*An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2000 conference of the Amer-

ican Sociological Association, Washington, D.C.

**Department of Sociology, University of Florida, P. O. Box 117330, Gainesville,FL

32611–7330 (fberardo@soc.uf‌l.edu).

Key Words: alimony, divorce, family, law, spouse, support.

(Family Relations, 2002, 51, 308–316)

current knowledge concerning alimony. Although noticeable

progress has been made in illuminating the postdivorce transfer

of economic resources, especially with respect to child support,

we still need to reckon with Foote’s (1966) observation that we

lack major scientif‌ic investigations designed to determine the

complexities and social consequences of alimony. For example,

what are the consequences when husbands are jailed for failure

to make court-ordered payments? Do alimony decisions have

different outcomes in community property states?

The vast majority of documented information on this topic

comes from the legal literature. In recent years, there also have

been several Internet sites dealing with this topic that provide

advice and information to the general public. Studies of the con-

sequences of alimony are rare in the social sciences. Indeed, one

could argue that the social science literature in this area is almost

nonexistent (Kelly & Fox, 1993). It is for this reason that we

view alimony as an anomaly in family science.

The paucity of social science research on alimony is sur-

prising, given the potential such awards hold for altering the

interaction and family roles of former spouses. We explore this

topic because it is an important and neglected aspect of the di-

vorce experience (Kelly & Fox, 1993). As money is one of the

major sources of marital conf‌lict, it seems reasonable to believe

that it would continue to function in this way after divorce. Ad-

ditionally, dissatisfaction over economic transactions may con-

tribute to divorced parents’ use of children as a means of bar-

gaining or punishment. Because the potential for continued in-

teraction and conf‌lict after marital termination may increase for

those who have an alimony judgment, it must be considered an

important topic in the f‌ield of family studies. Moreover,the con-

cept of alimony, its meaning, and its justif‌ication have undergone

considerable change over time. The implementation of no-fault

divorce and the changing status of women in society, including

their increased participation in the labor force and their growing

ability to be self-supporting, have had a signif‌icant inf‌luence on

conceptions of alimony (Blau, Ferber, & Winkler, 2002; Weitz-

man & Dixon, 1980).

Although the family science research in this area is scanty,

there is enough in the literature to at least provide some tentative

conclusions. The information at hand can lead to further research

that focuses on the social and psychological consequences of

such compensatory payments. We review current recommenda-

tions for reform, taking into account the realities of contempo-

rary American marriage and family systems, to suggest future

research questions.

Origin of Alimony: Before ‘‘No-Fault’’

The word alimony is derived from the Latin term for nour-

ishment or sustenance, alimentus. The concept of alimony, or the

support of a wife who was living apart from her husband, stems