Mediation Program Research Articles

‘Whoever Has the Stick Guides the Buffalo’

This article examines the relationship between the concept of neutrality in community mediation and partisan party politics in Nepal. Focusing on one donor-sponsored, US model-based community mediation programme in the Terai, this article contributes to a growing literature on authority formation and the role of party politicians in post-conflict Nepal. It argues that both neutrality and bias in dispute settlement are constitutive of building (Weberian) authority, allowing for the legitimate exercise of power by politicians. Neutrality is not only highly valued in mediation ideology, but is also a crucial legitimizing register in dispute settlement in Nepal. Although resolving disputes neutrally enhances the local legitimacy of (political) mediators, our research finds that there are cases when showing political favouritism also helps maintain power. We find that these contradictory incentives and the need to balance them guide the arena in which politicians choose to resolve disputes and how they choose to resolve them. These strategic decisions made by politicians in order to balance neutrality and bias thus guide outcomes of dispute settlement, and mediation in particular. This raises questions about the proclaimed ability of community mediation to overcome power imbalances and provide justice to disadvantaged communities.

The Effect of Types of Respiratory Exercise on Respiratory Muscle Activity and Health-Related Quality of Life of Patients with Severe Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Purpose: This study intended to classify voluntary respiratory exercise and exercise using breathing training equipment to suggest proper respiratory exercise to relieve symptoms of patients with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Methods: Sixteen subjects were randomly selected for experimental group I, which performed feedback breathing exercise and 15 sub jects were randomly selected for experimental group II, which performed a complex breathing exercise. The mediation program was per formed 30 minutes a session, once a day, three times a week, for five weeks. This study analyzed before and after results within groups and between groups through measurement of respiratory muscle activity and health-related quality of life. Results: Activity of sternocleidomastoid muscle and scalene muscle increased meaningfully within experimental group I and activity of diaphragm increased significantly within experimental group II (p<0.05) and there was a meaningful difference in health-related quality of life within experimental group II (p<0.05). Significant differences in change of activity of respiratory muscle and health-related quali ty of life were observed between groups (p<0.05). Conclusion: This study showed conflicting results between activity of agonist and synergist in patients with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease according to types of respiratory exercise and that complex respiratory exercise is more effective in health-related quality of life. Therefore, it found that the more severity increase, the more self-respiratory technique is an effective program. Diversified approach methods will be needed to improve respiratory function and quality of life for patients, and continuous clinical studies will be needed in the future.

Six Programs, Six Models: An Evaluation of the Foreclosure Mediation Programs Funded by the Office of the Illinois Attorney General

This evaluation of six foreclosure mediation programs with very different service delivery models provides evidence that program design has a significant impact on the functioning of a program. The programs were assessed on participation rate, the percentage of eligible and participating homeowners who were able to retain their homes, completion rates, the amount of time cases spent in the program, and the experience of participating homeowners at each stage of the process. Each program was evaluated individually and all six were compared on these measures. The study found that participation is greater in programs that are easier to enter and in which the homeowners learn one-on-one how the program can help them, that homeowners benefit from a second opportunity to participate, that legal services may improve outcomes and that all programs are providing a just process.

A Study on the Historical Development and Current Situation of Community Mediation Programs as Private ADR in the USA.

A Study on the Historical Development and Current Situation of Community Mediation Programs as Private ADR in the USA.

Direct Instruction and Guided Practice Matter in Conflict Resolution and Social‐Emotional Learning

AbstractSeven schools in an economically challenged area of an urban school district in central California implemented mentored peer mediation programs under the guidance of a university–K‐12 partnership project, Mediator Mentors. Individual student outcomes for social‐cognitive dispositions, perceptions of school climate, conflict strategy choices, and standardized testing results in language arts were analyzed on the basis of assessments administered after one year of program implementation and compared to pretest values generated by student mediators and nonmediators. Attendance and student perceptions of school safety were also examined after a year of peer mediation at the schools. Overall school climate was analyzed with respect to bullying incidence and suspension and expulsion rates before and after one year of program implementation.

Foreclosure Mediation: An Experiment that Worked

Foreclosure mediation and diversion programs adopted in various states in the wake of the 2007 crisis have been highly effective in achieving workouts and other alternatives to forced home sales, according to the available research. The Uniform Law Commission has adopted a uniform Home Foreclosure Procedures Act (HFPA) that includes a pre-foreclosure resolution program, akin to mediation, for owner-occupied homes. This paper surveys the various state mediation programs and the existing empirical research on the costs and benefits of foreclosure mediation and diversion programs now in place. Some original data analysis is offered concerning foreclosure outcome variation among the states in a national mortgage performance database. Foreclosure mediation differs from conventional mediation standards embodied in the Uniform Mediation Act, and there is a body of case law on the duty to participate in foreclosure mediation in good faith. The paper concludes that the HFPA’s robust duty to participate in foreclosure mediation, together with new federal mortgage servicing rules, should remove obstacles to maximizing mutually beneficial foreclosure alternatives.

Effectiveness of Parent-Child Mediation in Improving Family Functioning and Reducing Adolescent Problem Behavior: Results from a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.

Parent-child mediation programs are intended to resolve or manage disputes and improve family functioning, but rigorous evaluations of their effectiveness are lacking. Families referred to a community-based mediation program (N=111) were randomized to an intervention or wait-list control group, and completed three surveys over a 12-week period. With the exception of parent-reported child delinquency (which decreased more in the intervention group), this evaluation provides little support for the short-term effectiveness of parent-child mediation for improving family functioning and reducing child problem behaviors in general. Given that this is the first randomized controlled trial of a parent-child mediation program, additional evaluations involving larger samples and longer follow-ups are needed before firm conclusions can be drawn about the effectiveness of this intervention.

Can restorative justice satisfy victims’ needs? Evaluation of the Catalan victim–offender mediation programme

ABSTRACTThis article presents the results of a quantitative investigation to evaluate a penal mediation programme conducted in Catalonia. We assessed the degree to which the programme is able to achieve the objectives of restorative justice from the point of view of victims’ needs. The study basically confirmed the results obtained in other countries, underlining how the mediation process contributes to the emotional recovery of victims. After analysing the different factors involved, we have highlighted the capacity of restorative processes to provide victims with a better sense of justice than the criminal justice system both in terms of the procedural and therapeutic dimensions of justice.

The role of the school system in the prevention of terrorism

Schools are a place within which teenagers' anxieties are expressed, as well as those of adults, in the difficult confrontation with otherness, in a context of conflictual globalisation. The school is a key player in the prevention of terrorism, through the elaboration of these tensions which it can allow. The Métisco team offers school mediation programs, in order to help professionals fulfil this mission.

국내 노인 대상 우울 중재프로그램에 대한 체계적 고찰

This research analyzes the actual condition and trend in 119 research papers about sadness mediation program for senior citizens, which were published from 1990 to 2014, to find an expansive way for seniors. And the result is as in the following: publish year of subjects is 2010 to 2014, research plan was done by experimental-control group plan, and we quoted the most of the yardstick from foreign research, in the case of the seniors stays in their own house. Art therapy is the most common way of mediation, and most programs were done less than 10 times, once in a week, and less than 60 minutes in once. And variable of efficacy is verified in the order of physical ability, self-worth, and cognitive function. As the first research that analyzes the trend of sadness mediation program for senior citizens, this research is expected to help setting the direction of future research. that is related to convergence.

Accessing Justice Through Settlement? Repeat Players in Court-Connected Mediation and Conciliation Programs in Brazil

Do repeat players come out ahead in court mediation and conciliation in Brazil? In order to address this issue, the research investigates how consensual mechanisms are used by courts to deal with repeated litigation and which are the practices and techniques specifically aimed at repeated disputes. The characteristic elements of these repeated disputes are the similarity of the factual and/or legal arguments, the representativeness of the volume of claims and the fact that one of the parties litigates in similar disputes more often, while the other in involved in such type of cases only occasionally. These “repeat players” are known as the great litigants of the Judiciary, and enjoy certain advantages in terms of bargaining power, resources and information in view of their size and the frequency with which they are involved with similar cases.An empirical research was carried out in court programs to study the perceptions of the players involved in the design and routines of these programs on the issues raised. It was found that repeated litigation is a crucial part of court conciliation and mediation programs, influencing the role of the main stakeholders (parties, lawyers and conciliators/mediators), screening and case management practices, access conditions, specific techniques and the role played the Judiciary, who shall also act as manager, designer and institutional mediator. It is concluded that the structure and design of these programs and the role of those involved can be key factors for an adequate treatment of repeated disputes in the judicial context.

The Integration of Mediation Within Justice System: An Assessment from the Brazilian and European Legal Frameworks

Lately Europe and Brazil have been suffering from the systemic inefficiency of their Courts, with a significant impact on the guarantee of access to justice for their citizens, making the alternative dispute resolution a constant presence in both civil law and common law systems of jurisdiction. The upshot has been the institutionalization of ADRs, taking the form as a routine presence at codes of civil procedure, while its practice is introduced into the courts. However, both institutionalization and the obligation to take part in mediation programs before or after starting the suit are exceptional measures, which must be adopted with caution. This article will examine the institutionalization of mediation in the European Union with its Directive as well as the required adjustments intended to deliver a court-connected mediation along a procedural justice enhanced by the Brazilian Civil Procedure Code sanctioned on 16th March 2015 and enforced as from 17th march 2016 with regard to mediation and the Mediation Act n. 13.140 sanctioned on 26th June 2015, enforced as from 27th December 2015, analyzing the adjustments that should be held to incorporate mediation process within a procedural justice paradigm.

Ethics Reform in New Orleans: Progress And Problems Ten Years Post-Katrina

The article examines three New Orleans ethics entities created ten years ago in the wake of Hurricane Katrina — the Office of Inspector General (OIG), the Office of Independent Police Monitor (OIPM), and the Ethics Review Board (ERB). The OIG and OIPM are oversight bodies; only the ERB has enforcement power.The OIG proved successful and productive, issuing many reports and claiming city government savings of nearly $60,000,000. The presence of a well-regarded OIG in Orleans Parish has provoked consideration and implementation of the concept in adjacent parishes.The OIPM instituted a police-community mediation program, engaged with a federal consent decree, and monitored critical incident reports. But the OIPM’s effectiveness would be enhanced by charter reform, giving the office financial and operational independence.The ERB functioned well in selecting the first two Inspectors General in 2007 and 2009. But during 2010-2014 the ERB declined to exercise its ethics enforcement authority; repeatedly violated the open meetings law; neglected the opportunity to recommend improvements to the city ethics code; and fell out of compliance with diversity requirements, lacking any women, Hispanics, or Asians among its membership. Its problems were not structural or systemic; all can be addressed by improved policy decisions and performance.The article recommends several strategies for improving overall functioning of the city’s ethics entities and concludes that New Orleans is a stronger, more resilient community because of the three local ethics bodies, all of which only began operating post-Katrina.

Cycles of Creativity. The story of one Mediation program

This essay summarizes reflections offered at the 2014 Edward Kennedy Institute Mediation Conference. Using as an example her community mediation program in Philadelphia, the author outlines the how the cycle of creativity affected the program (and the wider community mediation field) over time—starting with identifying a problem, then experimenting with exciting ideas, improvising, then formalizing, sustaining, and institutionalizing. The author observes that both creativity and formalizing are essential, yet are necessarily in tension. After offering several ways mediators and programs can encourage creativity through co-mediation, mentoring, interacting with other fields, and risking improvisation, the essay concludes that the excitement of creative energy can propel a program and its offshoots for a long time afterward. However creativity is ephemeral and at its heart, mediation is less about fostering creative approaches than about helping parties “be real.” For the next creative cycle, mediators need to be “real” about the causes of community conflicts, and co-create pathways to conflict resolution that people in those communities find effective. The 2014 Edward Kennedy Institute Conference theme of “Creative responses to conflict” prompted me to look again at my youthful experiences in an early community mediation program, with attention to the role of creativity — how it emerges, improvises, formalizes, finds ways to sustain and institutionalize, and appears again. The story may tell us more about the role of creativity in the formation of a new profession than it reveals about creativity in mediation and conflict resolution per se, so I visit that latter question briefly at the end. For our purposes in this essay, “creativity” refers to the process of inventing a significant, original approach to something. Ideally the creators also have the craft skill to bring their idea into the real world. When a big-scale creative idea comes along at a receptive time, it can generate many offspring. The movement to apply “mediation” to whole new categories of disputes was one of those moments. There are several commonly noted characteristics of how creativity unfolds that I will list briefly, then look at how they played out in a community mediation context: • Although we tend to think of creativity as an intuitive and sudden insight—that Eureka! moment—durable ideas are most likely to emerge from sustained practice and study and experimentation. • Within that field of knowledge, focusing on a limited problem, a puzzle, an idea, a specific situation also helps concentrate the creator’s attention. • Creativity often bubbles up at the margins and intersections, when someone deeply familiar with one area encounters practices and knowledge from an • Two other factors encourage creativity. • One is a loose, playful approach, as it helps loosen the mind from habit and judgmental voices. • The other is collaborating and/or competing with other people, either of which can increase social motivation to create something or solve a problem. Teamwork also has the advantage of pulling and together a greater mix of knowledge and therefore the chance of productive cross-fertilization and more careful selection of winning ideas.

Español

Bullying among peers in high school education is a problem affecting most of the Spanish schools. A good choice to solve this problem may be peer mediation programs, due to the different advantages they offer, most of them found in empirical research. Although the fostering of the student s autonomy, the improvement of school climate, and so on, are outstanding, few studies have included a scientific measure of the impact of these programs (Kmitta, 1999). Therefore, the objective of this study was to analyse the roles adopted in the conflict and the attitudes pro-victim of 323 students ranging from 12-15 years old, comparing two similar schools: one with a peer mediation program, and the other one, with no peer mediation program. Three questionnaires were administered to students in time 1 AG OR A DE SALU T I ISSN: 2443-9827. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.6035/AgoraSalut.2015.1.35 pp. 429-439 430 AGORA DE SALUT. VOL. I. ISSN: 2443-9827. DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.6035/AgoraSalut.2015.1.35 pp. 429-439 (baseline), and time 2 (after program development). Results showed the influence of peer mediation programs in roles and attitudes pro-victim: a clear improvement of the roles in the school with peer mediation program, and a decrease of the attitudes provictim in the school without mediation program.

Predictors of Pain, Perceived Health Status, Nutritional Risk, Social Support and Self-Transcendence on Depression Among Lower Income Senior Citizens

The purpose of this study was to identify the degree of effect that lower income senior citizens' pain, perceived health status, nutritional risk, social support and self-transcendence have on depression, and to develop a nursing mediation method. This is a descriptive research that was conducted on 164 subjects who were users of the S welfare center and P welfare center, located in D City, Korea. A questionnaire was conducted from July 27 to July 31, 2013 to collect data. Data was analyzed using SPSS 18.0 program, to conclude the descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson's correlation coefficients and stepwise multiple regression. The study results show that the mean score for the elderly's pain was 7.37 and the total of perceived health status was 5.47 points, which is lower than the median. Nutritional risk was 9.85 points indicating a high risk of nutrition, while social support and self-transcendence were 33.67 points and 23.85 points, respectively, which are both below median. Depression recorded 9.53 points, indicating a high likelihood of depression. In the correlation with depression, perceived health status (r=-.463, p<.001) had a weak inverse correlation, nutritional risk(r=.439, p<.001) had a weak correlation, and social support (r=-.470, p<.001) and self-transcendence (r=-.328, p<.001) had a weak inverse correlation. In terms of effect on depression among low income senior citizens, social support (B=-.110, p<.001) had the biggest effect, followed by perceived health status (B=-485., p<.001), self-transcendence (B=-.095, p=.001), nutritional risk (B=.199, p=.003), and number of diseases (B=1.199, p=.037). Overall explanatory power was 44.4%. As a follow-up, a social support system to ease depression among lower income senior citizens, a mediation program to promote mental well-being or self-transcendence, and a social safety net to lower the health and nutritional risks would be needed.

죽음준비교육의 연구동향 분석

Abstract This study analyzed the studies and their trends, specifically 124 master’s and doctoral theses, as well as research papers on the topic of education on death published from 1990 to 2014. The study’s findings are as follows. First, in terms of trends by year, there were only 8papers in the 1990s but this figure saw a dramatic jump from 2005 to 2009 to a total of 50papers(40.3%). The majority of them, 59papers in total, were master’s theses(47.6%). Second, in terms of the study field, theological studies took the lead and studies on social welfare accounted for 29papers(28.4%) which was the largest share. Third, in terms of study subjects, senior citizens were used in the majority of papers or 35papers(40.7%) in total. Fourth, in terms of methodology, literature studies accounted for 61papers(49.2%) which was the largest share. Fifth, for mediation programs education on death, the preferred method of study was to have a before-after design using a control group and experiment group. The most common number of total sessions was 5-8sessions with one session per week and each session lasting for about 100-120minutes. Sixth, as for the effect variable of mediation programs for education on death, death anxiety was the most frequently studied variable at 23 papers(31.5%).

Factors Influencing Participant's Satisfaction in a Victim-offender Program

This paper analyses the relationship between external factors, internal factors and satisfaction level of participants in an adult victim-offender mediation (VOM) program. The validated “Criminal Mediation Satisfaction Questionnaire” (CSM-P) was administered to 103 offenders and 110 victims. Analysis explored in the entire sample variables related to satisfaction and the relationship between socio-legal variables, criminal record and mediation process with satisfaction level for victims and offenders as well as for participants with low and high satisfaction scores. Results show high satisfaction among victims and offenders. Victim’ age and absence of aggravating circumstances were related to higher satisfaction levels.

Conflict Management among Secondary School Students

Conflict between students is a common problem in the schools. If they are not supervised and controlled in a practical way, it can prevent school from reaching its goals and objectives and will have negative impact on school climate. One of the approaches for reducing conflict between individuals or groups at home or in the school or work place is mediation. Teaching students conflict management and resolution skills may provide them with necessary tools to solve their own conflict in a productive and practical way. This kind of training can also improve students self-esteem, self-confidence, and communication skills. Main thrust of this paper is on the exploration of the history of mediation and explain essential elements of adult and peer mediation programs. Then it follows by discussion about advantages, limitations and techniques adopted for its management and redressal

Ethnographic refusal as research method: Example from a study of a family court child custody mediation program

Mediation is a dispute resolution process in which a third party neutral facilitates discussion towards amicable agreement. Parents in Wisconsin filing disputed claims in family court over child custody or physical residence must attend mediation before going back to court. I began research on the Milwaukee Family Court Child Custody Mediation program three years ago with anticipation of data collection challenges due to sensitivity of the topic and need for multiple research permissions. Multiple and ongoing permission is necessary given an ethnographic extended case study research design. This approach was chosen to analyze the meanings of mediation within larger social contexts of court process and private family lives. While refusal from potential research subjects was understandable, I did not anticipate my difficulty staying with the research both in data collection and initial analysis. This essay explains my dilemma as an example of what anthropologist Sherry Ortner calls “ethnographic refusal,” which is also an occupational hazard of using direct engagement to understand lived experience. First, I explain how refusal can become part of ethnographic fieldwork and then use my study as an example. I focus on describing how emotional intensity within the research sites brought refusal that was eventually addressed as a productive rather than obstructive part of the research process. While it is important to avoid risk in going too far in trying to fully engage with others, there is also risk in not going far enough to engage with the full humanity of people struggling in difficult contexts.