| A quasi-experimental retrospective design was used to compare preliminary outcome measures of private divorce mediation and the traditional legal approach to divorce. Two comparable groups of subjects were surveyed and compared on variables concerning personal adjustment, satisfaction with settlement stipulations, compliance with settlement stipulations, and on factors of cost and duration of service.; The findings on personal adjustment indicated no statistically significant differences between groups. However, the direction of adjustment scores, the qualitative data, and a ceiling effect in the legal sample all accumulate to support the position that private divorce mediation may have a positive influence on post divorce adjustment.; High levels of satisfaction with overall divorce settlements are associated with participation in private divorce mediation in the present study (p. .05, B = -0.66). All scores in satisfaction variables indicated higher levels of satisfaction for mediation subjects when compared to their counterparts who used the traditional legal approach (property division, debt division, alimony, child support, child custody, child visitation).; A comparison of compliance scores on the settlement variables discussed above shows the mediation sample with higher compliance on all stipulations. These differences reach statistical significance (p > .05) and are correlated with participation in divorce mediation for the variables of spousal support (B = -0.77) and child visitation (B = -0.86).; The study results also demonstrate that considerable time (4.8 months) and money (approx. {dollar}500.00) are saved by use of the mediation alternative. |
