Mediation Styles Research Articles

One style does not fit all: the relationship of mediator behavioral adaptivity to mediator empowerment, efficacy, and satisfaction

Purpose Prior research on the situated model of mediation has suggested that mediators’ abilities to be more flexible and adaptive in responding to potential derailers in mediation situations lead to better outcomes. The purpose if this paper is to build on this theory and research by developing a new scale of mediator behavioral adaptivity and investigating the hypothesized effects of mediator adaptivity on their sense of efficacy, empowerment and satisfaction when mediating. Design/methodology/approach The paper presents findings from two survey studies with currently active, experienced mediators. Findings The findings offer a new scale for the study of effective mediation – the mediator behavioral adaptivity scale – and offer support for the hypothesis that mediators reporting an ability to use more diverse behavioral tactics and strategies (both standard and specialized strategies) report higher levels of satisfaction with mediation outcomes as well as more self-efficacy and empowerment during mediations. Research limitations/implications These studies are both self-report and correlational and so should be supplemented by subsequent research using experimental methods and more objective measures of mediation outcomes. Originality/value The program of research extended in this paper offers a new integrative model of adaptive mediation, which aims to provide evidence-based guidelines for using different types of mediation strategies in categorically different conflict situations. The model can ultimately help the field transcend discussions of preferred or best mediation styles and focus instead on how distinct strategies offer different degrees of fit for different types of mediation challenges.

“I had to watch the commercial. That was annoying!” Audio-observing active parental mediation of advertising

ABSTRACT Active mediation is considered the gold standard mediation style for parents seeking to help their children cope with potentially harmful media content. However, little is known about what actually happens during active mediation episodes. In this study, we employ an interactive task on advertising formats to audio-observe parent – child interactions during active mediation episodes (n = 23 dyads). The study contributes to the body of knowledge by exploring the communicative repertoires that parents and children draw on during active mediation episodes. We show how parents and children, in exercising their agency, respond to one another by adopting the parent positions of educator, role model, investigator, and bridge builder, and the child positions of novice, informant, and cognoscente. Most of the time, the episodes follow a clear pattern according to which parents are in control of the mediation episode and children mainly react to their parents’ initiatives. However, in instances of reverse mediation, this default hierarchy is turned upside down. Here, children explain media logics and educate their parents about advertising. The structure of active mediation episodes mapped in this study will allow researchers to develop a deeper understanding of active mediation as a complex and heterogenous phenomenon.

Trajectories of digital flourishing in adolescence: The predictive roles of developmental changes and digital divide factors.

Digital flourishing refers to the positive perceptions of digital communication use in five dimensions: connectedness, positive social comparison, authentic self-presentation, civil participation, and self-control. This three-wave panel study among 1081 Slovenian adolescents (Mage = 15.34 years, 53.8% boys, 80.7% ethnic majority) explored the trajectories of their digital flourishing dimensions over 1 year (2021-2022). Latent class growth analysis identified two classes. Adolescents in the first class reported high levels of digital flourishing, which remained stable over time, whereas those in the second class reported low levels of digital flourishing with decreased self-control over time. Autonomy-supportive restrictive, autonomy-supportive active, and controlling active parental mediation styles, together with high parental digital skills, predicted adolescents' belongingness to the (more digitally flourishing) first class.

Mediation as in Construction: An Empirical Investigation on the Evaluative and Facilitative Mediation

Disputes are inherent and inevitable in every construction project. Disputes should be resolved efficiently and effectively to minimise the negative impacts on the project and parties involved. Mediation is a wise choice in resolving construction disputes compared to litigation due to its benefits. However, the utilisation of mediation in the Malaysian construction industry is still low. This may be mainly due to the confidence issue of the construction stakeholders in mediation. The mediation styles that are mainly used in Malaysia are facilitative and evaluative. Both styles are different in the intervention extent of the mediator and thus their suitability and effectiveness in settling construction disputes are different. This paper intends to identify the types of disputes that are suitable for facilitative and evaluative mediation styles in construction and to determine the effectiveness of dispute settlement using facilitative and evaluative mediation styles in construction. The data is collected through qualitative research methods through multiple case studies via semi-structured interviews. The data is analysed by using content analysis. The finding shows that parties are more confident adopting evaluative mediation for settling construction disputes that involve contractual, technical, and tort or negligence disputes compared to facilitative mediation. Evaluative mediation is found to be more satisfactory than facilitative mediation in the aspects of time, cost, parties’ relationship, and settlement or outcome in the settlement of construction disputes. This paper informs the construction players in considering which mediation styles for settling their disputes amicably, efficiently, and effectively.

Advocating for mediation as a way to de-escalate conflict, with a focus on medico-legal claims: The anatomy of human conflict

The incidence and extent of medico-legal claims in South Africa has increased exponentially over the past number of years. Conventionally, medical negligence claims follow the civil litigation route, while alternative, perhaps better-suited, dispute resolution techniques and mechanisms are seldom considered. Where the occasional disputant does opt for mediation instead of civil litigation, mediators are not adequately versed in the human behavioural factors of conflict, even though these are crucial in establishing an appropriate strategy to de-escalate conflict and achieve settlement. Paying particular attention to medical negligence claims, this article draws on interdisciplinary sources to propose practical guidelines for mediators, whether existing or aspirant, to develop their mediation styles and strategies with regard to the thought processes and psychological factors behind disputes. This occurs against the backdrop of the current failure by formal legal education and vocational training curriculums to equip lawyers and mediators with even a basic understanding of the anatomy of human conflict. Incorporating such teaching into our curriculums could go a long way towards greater and more effective use of mediation to settle disputes, instead of summarily opting for the adversarial, costly and time-consuming route of civil litigation.

Qatar’s evolving role in conflict mediation

ABSTRACT Qatar’s role in mediation diminished following the 2017 Gulf Crisis and the regional backlash to its interventionist policy during the Arab Spring. After the resolution of the Gulf Crisis in 2021, the Qatari role in conflict mediation re-emerged with a return to third-party mediation in the early 2020s, receiving widespread attention following the U.S.-Taliban agreement. The post-crisis return of Qatar to playing central mediator and facilitator roles in conflict management has, however, been subject to discontinuities as well as continuities in its mediation style as a result of the crisis in its international relations. This article analyses the evolution of mediation strategy, utilizing case studies of Qatar’s mediation in Afghanistan, Chad, and Libya through a framework focusing on results, modality, acceptability and reception. The analysis identifies key comparative findings on Qatar’s post-2020 renewed role in conflict mediation.

Longitudinal association of adolescents’ perceptions of parental mediations and compulsive Internet use

Today's adolescents do not know a life without the Internet, which is here to stay. Much of adolescents' Internet consumption takes place at home. Accordingly, it is imperative that parents are centrally positioned to aid adolescents to maximize the opportunities it presents while also minimizing the associated risks. This 2-year, four-wave longitudinal study involved 1983 middle school adolescents (Mage = 13.01, SD = 0.70; Grade seven at Time 1; 46.9% female) to examine the relationship between adolescents' perceived parental mediation styles, including encouragement, worry, monitoring, and permission, and compulsive Internet use (CIU). Autoregressive cross lag panel analyses showed that the mediation styles functioned differently and interacted with CIU at different time periods. Parental encouragement was the only mediation that reduced adolescents' CIU, and it only worked during a school year, but not across school years. CIU was a constant trigger of parental worry in all time periods. CIU predicted parental monitoring across school years but not within a school year. It also prompted parental permission during a school year. Parents exhibited more than one parental mediation style at any given time period. Steps to elevate parental encouragement should be put in place so as to reduce adolescents' CIU.

보호자의 아동 미디어 이용 자기 조절력 평가가 미디어 교육의 필요성에 미치는 영향: 보호자 중재 행위와 미디어 영향에 관한 인식의 매개효과를 중심으로

보호자의 아동 미디어 이용 자기 조절력 평가가 미디어 교육의 필요성에 미치는 영향: 보호자 중재 행위와 미디어 영향에 관한 인식의 매개효과를 중심으로

In Search of the Golden Formula: Trends in Peace Mediation Research and Practice

ABSTRACT This paper examines how the research on, and the practice of, peace mediation has evolved in the past 25 years, with a particular focus on the hypothesised factors that explain mediation ‘success’ and argues for an explicit re-centring of the political in peacemaking. The analysis highlights how research on peacemaking has seen a growth of quantitative studies, while at the same time the practice field of peace mediation has been characterised by a process of professionalisation. We argue that in parallel to these two trends, there has been a shift away from focusing on exogeneous factors, such as those pertaining to the conflict context, to explain ‘success’ or ‘failure’ towards those endogenous to the peace process. A rapidly growing literature on elements of peace process design ranging from inclusivity, mediator characteristics, mediation styles, as well as the substance of negotiated agreements has both informed and been informed by developments in the practitioner community of mediation. These mutually reinforcing trends, while enriching the field, risk portraying mediation as a technical and de-politicised exercise and create inflated expectations of the role and capacity of mediators. We illustrate these trends with a discussion of the case of UN peacemaking in Yemen.

What can stop the 'pester power'? A longitudinal study on the impact of children's audiovisual media consumption on media-motivated food purchase requests.

In modern audiovisual media, children are confronted with an endless stream of food advertising. Thus, companies can undermine parents' best efforts to feed their children healthy foods. Indeed, parents often describe that their children request specific foods depicted in media, most of which are high in fat, salt, and/or sugar. Longitudinal research on the factors influencing media-motivated food purchase requests remains scarce. In a panel study, pairing data of N = 529 children (6-11 years) and one of their parents (N = 529), we examined how children's individual factors (i.e., age and body mass index [BMI]), their audiovisual media consumption, and different parental mediation styles are associated with parents' perceptions of children's media-motivated food purchase requests. While age was negatively related and children's BMI positively related to children's media-motivated food purchase requests, we found no overall effect of children's audiovisual media consumption. Interestingly, talking with children about foods during or after viewing (i.e., conversation-oriented communication about foods depicted in media) increased media-motivated food purchase requests, most likely by fostering the cognitive availability of food products. Restrictive media mediation exerted a negative effect (i.e., reduced purchase requests). Findings suggest that restricting exposure to food advertising in the media may be more powerful in stopping the 'pester power' than previously thought. Thus, policy-supporting restrictions on depicting unhealthy foods in media content targeted at children may be helpful.

LISTENING IN COURT-CONNECTED MEDIATIONS

ABSTRACT As the use of court-connected mediations has received a permanent status as an intrajudicial conflict resolution method, the purpose of this study (n = 38/44 Finnish judges) was to elucidate how listening is used in mediations. The data set one consisted of answers to open-ended questions and was analyzed using thematic content analysis. The data set two consisted 56 statements that were used to create a personal listening profile for each participating judge. The results suggest that 1) facilitative, evaluative, and transformative mediation models have both shared and different listening goals that require an extensive listening competence from the mediator judges, 2) complexity and relationality characterize listening in facilitative mediations, and 3) most judges sent highly or moderately person-centered messages and were excellent in interpretation and evaluation. These results suggest that the relationality of listening in court-connected mediations is imperative in meeting the needs of the mediating parties. The judges’ listening behavior, listening goals, and the listening requirements of each mediation style suggest that the full potential of listening in court-connected mediations is yet to be reached.

Parents’ mental state communication and children’s consumer behavior in the USA

PurposePrevious research has shown that children’s ability to understand mental states is related to their consumer development, yet it is unknown how parents can aid in this process. One possible way that parents may help is using mental state communication (i.e. communication that focuses on beliefs/intention to explain behavior by others). This study aims to examine whether this kind of communication is linked to children’s purchase requests through two potential mediators – active mediation and child socio-cognitive skills (i.e. Theory of Mind).Design/methodology/approachThis study used a survey of 420 American mothers with children between the ages of 3 and 7. Respondents were given 12 scenarios describing typical parent–child interactions focused on discussing mental states and were asked how they would respond. Then, respondents were asked about demographic information, parenting style, mediation style, child socio-cognitive skills and child purchase requests.FindingsResults showed both a direct and indirect negative association between parents’ mental state communication and children’s purchase requests via active advertising mediation. Contrary to expectations, active mediation was negatively associated with mental state communication and positively linked to child purchase requests. Children’s socio-cognitive skills were not associated with either parents’ mental state communication or children’s purchase requests.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first known study that has examined mental state communication of parents as a potential predictor in shaping children’s purchase requests and found that it was negatively associated with it.

Socio-Emotional Skills: Toward a Metacognition and Emotional Regulation use in Higher Education Internship Process

The teaching-learning process generated within the framework of Higher Education system remain as a constant of analysis and tension. The economic and sociocultural configuration of the 21st century has evoked it a recurring idea about to have professionals who are increasingly prepared to adapt to changes and generate effective social interactions. If we look at the graduation profiles of the undergraduate programs, it is possible to quickly identify many socio-emotional skills that would be developed as part of a teaching-learning process during their undergraduate career. However, it is complex to access those aspects related to methodologies, teaching methods, tests, projects, and feedback strategies that would support this expected development. Due to this situation, the focus of this article is to generate an initial proposal to deepen the context of apprenticeship during an internship process and the possibilities of this being an instance that bring direct benefits to the socio-emotional development of undergraduate students, by emphasizing the role of the teacher who supervises this formative milestone as an actor who plays a role as a mediator using metacognition and emotional regulation. The reflection on this dimension of Higher Education hopes to initiate a discussion about the opportunities for the improvement´s internship process, and Higher Education teaching-learning process that focus on the mediation style for the development of key skills throughout life.

Resolving Scottish paediatric end-of-life conflicts

This article considers mediation as a means of resolving decision-making disputes between clinicians and parents in paediatric end-of-life cases. It examines the legal tests applied in England and Wales and notes the lack of precedent in Scotland. The advantages, disadvantages and the most appropriate style of mediation are analysed. The conclusion reached is that whilst mediation offers benefits over litigation, mediation in its current form is not necessarily the ideal dispute resolution method in such cases. For it to be so, a legal and governance framework will be required.

How Can Trust Increase Children′s Understanding of Privacy for 21st Century Learning Environment?

In the digital world, privacy is one of the most important factors in establishing and building trust. Children involvement in digital media and internet is increasing particularly in embracing the 21st century learning environment. Concerns related to the intermediated role of trust can increase children’s understanding of privacy served as a critical research area to be investigated. Therefore, this study presents the findings from interview (26 pupils) and focus group session (10 focus group sessions involving 57 pupils) with children aged 9 to 11 years in Edinburgh, Scotland, and with eight volunteering parents to investigate their perceptions of trust in the online environment. The findings have shown how trust helped children to be ready to embrace the 21st century learning environment. Trust to children helped in increasing children’s autonomy, help in understanding the parental internet mediation styles, reducing parents’ worries and increase children’s privacy awareness.

An examination of bedtime media and excessive screen time by Canadian preschoolers during the COVID-19 pandemic

BackgroundRisky media use in terms of accumulating too much time in front of screens and usage before bedtime in early childhood is linked to developmental delays, reduced sleep quality, and unhealthy media use in later childhood and adulthood. For this reason, we examine patterns of media use in pre-school children and the extent to which child and family characteristics contribute to media use during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsA cross-sectional study of digital media use by Canadian preschool-aged children (mean age = 3.45, N = 316) was conducted at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic between April and August of 2020. Parents completed a questionnaire and 24-h recall diary in the context of an ongoing study of child digital media use. From these responses we estimated hours of average daily screen time, screen time in the past 24 h, average daily mobile device use, and media use before bedtime. Parents also answered questions about their child (i.e., age, sex, temperament), family characteristics (parental mediation style, parental screen time, education, income), and contextual features of the pandemic (ex., remote work, shared childcare). Daycare closures were directly assessed using a government website.ResultsOur results indicate that 64% of preschoolers used more than 2 h of digital media hours/day on average during the pandemic. A majority (56%) of children were also exposed to media within the hour before bedtime. Logistic and multinomial regressions revealed that child age and temperament, restrictive parental mediation, as well as parent digital media use, education, satisfaction with the division of childcare, remote work, and number of siblings and family income were all correlates of risky digital media use by preschoolers.ConclusionsOur results suggest widespread risky media use by preschoolers during the pandemic. Parenting practices that include using more restrictive mediation strategies may foster benefits in regulating young children’s screen time.

The Privacy Paradox by Proxy: Considering Predictors of Sharenting

Despite being worried that children may compromise their privacy by disclosing too much personal data online, many parents paradoxically share pictures and information about their children <em>themselves</em>, a practice called sharenting. In this article we utilise data from the EU Kids Online survey to investigate this paradox. We examine both how individual characteristics such as demographics and digital skills, and relational factors, including parental mediation styles, concerns about children’s privacy, and communication between parents and children influence sharenting practices. Counter-intuitively, our findings show that parents with higher levels of digital skills are more likely<em> </em>to engage in sharenting. Furthermore, parents who actively mediate their children’s use of the internet and are more concerned about the privacy of their children, are also more likely to engage in sharenting. At the same time, and further emphasising the complexities of this relational practice, many parents do not ask for their children’s consent in advance of sharing information about them. Overall, parents seem to consider the social benefits of sharenting to outweigh the potential risks both for themselves and for their children. Given the paradoxical complexities of sharenting practices, we propose further research is required to distinguish between different kinds of sharenting and their potential implications for children and young people’s right to privacy.

Sponsored Influencer Vlogs and Young Viewers: When Sponsorship Disclosure Does not Enhance Advertising Literacy, and Parental Mediation Backfires

Using unique data from 609 parent–daughter (8–16 years of age) dyads, in an online experiment we studied two pivotal antecedents of young viewers’ cognitive advertising literacy: influencer-generated sponsorship disclosure (written and/or spoken) and parental mediation style (active or restrictive). A between-subjects, single-factor design was applied with three experimental conditions: written disclosure, spoken disclosure, and both written and spoken disclosure, and a control condition—no disclosure. Variance-based partial least squares structural equation modeling in Smart-PLS 3.0 shows that policy makers’ and parental measures to safeguard young consumers from negative consequences of sponsored vlogs can lead to unanticipated effects. While the combination of written and spoken sponsorship disclosure information as well as an active parental mediation style increase cognitive advertising literacy, restrictive parental mediation negatively affects cognitive advertising literacy. In addition, cognitive advertising literacy negatively affects young viewers’ evaluation of the vlogger and positively affects the attitude toward the sponsored brand. Our findings provide important insights for parents, practitioners, and regulators and contribute to the discussion of how to make influencer marketing more effective and ethical.

Look who’s (not) talking: The use of mediation in medical negligence claims in Ireland

This paper looks at why mediation is not more widely used in medical negligence claims in Ireland. It is based on research, undertaken in connection with an MA in Mediation and Conflict Intervention at Maynooth University, during which eight solicitors working in the field of medical negligence shared their experience and perspectives on the use of mediation in this area. The research finds that mediation is in use but only as part of the convoluted litigation system and the style used is focused on the legal interests of the parties rather than any emotional needs. The Irish State has introduced some measures to facilitate the use of mediation but there is no coherent strategy and low public awareness. Legislative changes to streamline the litigation system are on the way, but if the parties’ needs and interests are to be served, a more facilitative, people-centred mediation style should be adopted, supported by a coherent, government sponsored, restorative justice strategy.

Strategy model for workplace mediation success

This article proposes a three-step model to help workplace mediators decide on the optimum strategy for mediating workplace disputes. The model uses a grid – the Workplace Mediation Strategy Grid – which is based on a modified version of a grid Professor Leonard Riskin developed for categorising mediation orientations. The model asks the mediator to first consider the nature of the workplace dispute based on three facets of the dispute. This guides the mediator to plot a position on the Grid which represents two fundamental aspects of strategy for mediating that dispute: (1) how broadly the problem should be defined by the mediator and (2) the style of mediation that the mediator should use. The mediator implements this strategy improving the likelihood of a fair and positive outcome for the disputing parties.