Learning to understand and resolve family conflict: The effects of mediation training on mother-child conflict resolution

The aim of this dissertation was to examine the effects of teaching mothers and their 4-6 and 7-10 year-old children constructive conflict resolution strategies through mediation training. The goals of the mediation training were to: (1) promote a positive and constructive environment for negotiating conflicts, (2) increase communication and mutual understanding of both family members' positions, and (3) teach mothers and children how to generate a compromise. The study used a pre/post-test design to assess the effects of mediation training. At pretest, all mothers and children negotiated an ongoing conflict in order to assess how they resolved conflicts prior to intervention. Pretests were followed by experimental sessions where mothers and children were either instructed in constructive conflict resolution strategies (mediation training), or asked to negotiate conflicts without guidance or training (control). Posttest negotiations were carried out one month after completion of the final experimental session.;The results show that mediation training positively affected the outcomes of mother-child negotiations, and had a significant impact on the conflict resolution strategies they used during negotiations. In the mediation training group, the rate of compromise increased from 22% at pretest to 57% at posttest. Mediation-trained mothers and children successfully generated more compromises by using more positive conflict resolution strategies and by avoiding the use of negative strategies. Specifically, mothers and children stated their goals, provided reasons for their positions, and were less likely to blame each other during negotiations. Mothers asked children to explicitly state their goals, and actively involved children in the generation of a solution to the conflict. Mothers rarely made demands of their children. In contrast, mothers and children in the control group continued to end most negotiations in mother-wins (62%), and were more likely to use negative negotiation strategies rather than positive strategies. The effect of repeated negotiation in the absence of mediation training generally resulted in mothers adopting negative negotiation strategies that allowed them to more effectively achieve their goals. The success of the mediation training described in this study has implications for the design and implementation of family conflict resolution interventions.