Connie J. A. Beck

Family mediation : facts, myths, and future prospects

Some believe it is quicker, less expensive, and less painful to mediate support, custody, and visitation issues rather than battle over them in court. But how valid are the claims of meditations wide-ranging benefits? Family Mediation traces the development of the field of mediation and discusses the state of current practices.

Sex Differences in Intimate Partner Violence and the Use of Coercive Control as a Motivational Factor for Intimate Partner Violence

Research argues that coercive control (CC) is a special case of intimate partner violence (IPV). The present study hypothesized that instead CC is the motivator for other types of IPV, with control of the victim as the goal. When CC fails, physical types of IPV are used. This hypothesized relationship was tested using a large matched sample of 762 divorcing couples participating in divorce mediation. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data with CC predicting two latent common factors of the overall level of victimization separately for men and women. Significant causal relationships between CC and the latent construct of victimization for both members of the couples were found. In addition, CC, psychological abuse, sexual assault/intimidation/coercion, threats of and severe physical violence were disproportionately reported as perpetrated by men against women whereas reports of physical abuse (e.g., pushing, shoving, scratching) were not.

A critical reappraisal of divorce mediation research and policy

Because of the many problems associated with litigating divorce disputes, mediation has been proposed as an alternative. Its proponents, claiming wide-ranging benefits for both the litigants and the legal system, have had tremendous success in advancing mediation in social policy. This article critically assesses the validity of these claimed benefits. The article first considers the role of pro se representation and its potential consequences for evaluating divorce mediation because of the increased use of pro se representation in these cases. The article then articulates the goals attributed to the mediation procedure and its clients, identifies the behavioral assumptions underlying those goals, and critically reviews the social science research and theory that have directly tested the validity of the goals and assumptions or are indirectly relevant to the analysis (B. D. Sales, 1983). It is concluded that the goals of divorce mediation may have been and may be overly optimistic. The implications of these findings for mediation practice and policy are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Validation of a measure of intimate partner abuse with couples participating in divorce mediation

Critics of court mandated divorce mediation have raised awareness of the need for screening measures to assess intimate partner abuse. This study validates a new instrument that is a revised version of the Partner Abuse Scales developed by Walter Hudson in the 1990s. The Relationship Behavior Rating Scale (RBRS) correlates highly with the original scales and subscales developed from the original and RBRS items have equally high reliability. The new scale is a reliable measure for intimate partner abuse in divorce mediation.

Defining a Threshold for Client Competence to Participate in Divorce Mediation.

The ultimate aim of court-ordered divorce mediation is to produce settlement agreements. Once ratified by the court, these agreements are legally binding and extremely difficult to modify. Courts assume that everyone is adequately equipped to mediate and, with increasing frequency, order litigants into mediation. Nonetheless, commentators have acknowledged that at least occasionally, a party may be unable to proceed. Currently, no standard exists for determining when a party lacks sufficient understanding and ability to participate in mediation, yet the legally binding outcomes of mediation are too important to leave a determination of competence up to chance. In this article, the authors propose a new legal standard, with a basis in current law and policy, for competence to participate in mediation.

Mediator Assessment, Documentation, and Disposition of Child Custody Cases Involving Intimate Partner Abuse: A Naturalistic Evaluation of One County's Practices

The contentious and costly nature of the adversarial process for resolving child custody disputes has prompted scholars, practitioners, and policy makers to advocate for the development and implementation of less divisive forms of dispute resolution, notably, mediation. Mediation has been championed for its potential to resolve disputes with less acrimony among disputants, reduced economic costs, increased satisfaction with outcomes, and fewer adverse consequences for family members. Despite the increasing popularity, arguments have cautioned against the use of mandated mediation when intimate partner abuse (IPA) is alleged. This research documents a mediation screening process and models mediators’ decision-making process as instantiated, naturally, in one jurisdiction.

Evaluating Parenting Coordination Programs: Encouraging Results From Pilot Testing a Research Methodology

A subset of families who separate and divorce become embroiled in conflict and demand a disproportionate amount of court resources both during and after their legal divorce process. The court system has responded by establishing parenting coordination (PC) programs to assist parents in resolving conflict without utilizing court resources to do so. In spite of widespread implementation, empirical research into the effects of PC programs is “practically nonexistent” (Henry, Fieldstone, & Bohac, 2009). The present study is a pilot study of a PC program in one jurisdiction to investigate the use of a methodology not previously used within the parenting coordination literature to test the effectiveness of PC programs. Variables relating to the amount of judicial, court personnel, outside agency, and parental time that was spent on each case were coded from legal divorce files. Results indicate that the PC program reduced the number of: motions filed by parents, documents processed by court personnel, judicial hearings, and changes in agreements ordered by judges for this small sample. The methodology pilot tested was successful and provided a comprehensive analysis. While a small pilot, the overall conclusion reached is this PC program is promising for in easing the burden on court personnel, reducing the number of agencies involved with the family and in assisting parents in making longer-lasting parenting decisions. Important next steps are to cross validate these findings using a larger sample and a control group with similar characteristics who were not assigned parenting coordinators.

Mediator’s Assessment of Safety Issues and Concerns (MASIC) Reliability and Validity of a New Intimate Partner Violence Screen

We investigated reliability and validity of the Mediator’s Assessment of Safety Issues and Concerns (MASIC), a screening interview for intimate partner violence and abuse (IPV/A) in family mediation settings. Clients at three family mediation clinics in the United States and Australia (N = 391) provided reports of the other parent’s IPV/A. Internal consistency of the total screen was excellent. A confirmatory factor analysis provided evidence that the MASIC assesses seven types of IPV/A: psychological abuse, coercive controlling behaviors, threats of severe violence, physical violence, severe physical violence, sexual violence, and stalking. Sex differences on differing types of violence victimization were generally consistent with previous research. Higher levels of victimization predicted self-reported consequences of abuse (e.g., fear, injuries). More abusive parties, as identified by their partners on the MASIC, had more Protective Orders and No Contact Orders and criminal convictions and crimes potentially related to IPV/A. Results provide initial evidence of the reliability and validity of the MASIC but more research is needed.

Patterns of intimate partner violence in a large, epidemiological sample of divorcing couples.

In many jurisdictions divorcing couples are court-ordered to participate in divorce mediation to resolve parenting plan disputes prior to a court allowing a case to proceed to trial. Historically, a significant number (40-80%) of these divorcing couples enter this highly stressful legal process having experienced violence and abuse within the relationship (Pearson, 1997). Several researchers have developed typologies that describe couple-level patterns of Intimate Partner Violence and Abuse (IPV/A) behaviors; one research team suggested their typology could apply specifically to such divorcing people (Kelly & Johnson, 2008). In this context, identification and accurate classification of IPV/A can lead to better decisions as long-term, difficult to modify custody orders concerning the children are made during divorce mediation. Accurate identification and classification of IPV/A can also assist clinical researchers designing specialized interventions for couples and individuals experiencing IPV/A, mental health practitioners who may treat these families, and custody evaluators who may make recommendations to the courts. The current study includes a large epidemiological sample of divorcing couples and provides a robust statistical solution with five distinct categories of IPV/A. Two of the five categories were similar to those proposed by Johnson (2006c). The current study also provides descriptions and frequencies of each type of IPV/A, and discusses implications for court personnel, researchers and practitioners.

Validation of a Measure of Intimate Partner Abuse (Relationship Behavior Rating Scale–Revised) Using Item Response Theory Analysis

There is a need for a screening instrument to provide insight into intimate partner abuse (IPA) to inform legal decisions in child custody, divorce, child welfare, and criminal cases. This study is the third validation of the Relationship Behavior Rating Scale–Revised (RBRS–R) for concurrent validity with the widely used Conflict Tactics Scales 2 (CTS2). Item response theory results show that the RBRS–R compares favorably to the CTS, but also provides a higher degree of resolution than the CTS2 with respect to additional elements of IPA that can be manifested in different situations or individuals. This additional information might be very important in determining the safest legal process (mediation versus traditional litigation) and appropriate case outcomes to protect victims of violence.