NCJ Number
98062
Date Published
1984
Length
40 pages
Annotation
This paper describes a coding system which allows the behaviors of custody/visitation mediators and disputants to be coded by listening to audio tapes generated in custody/visitation agreements.
Abstract
Based on reviews of existing frameworks, descriptive and theoretical literature on mediation, and a sample of transcripts of custody mediations conducted at the Los Angeles Conciliation Court, the Domestic Relations Division of the Hennepin County Court (Minn.), and the Domestic Relations Division of the Superior Court of Connecticut, the Mediation Process Analysis (MPA) was developed. The MPA is built on a number of assumptions, including that a coding system should be finite, exhaustive, mutually exclusive, and should be validated. The MPA samples units of speech or independent clauses during a mediation session and focuses on five dimensions. These are: who is speaking, target of the message, whether the unit is a question or statement, the content of the message, and the tone of the message. There are eight main classifications: process, information, summarize other, self-disclosure, attribution, proposed solutions, agreements, and interruptions. Thirty-two mediation behaviors are coded under the 'content' dimension. Preliminary tests of the process were conducted by coding tapes of custody mediations generated in the three courts. Correspondence between two procedures -- coding a 1-hour mediation session and recoding it using 2-minute sample -- was extremely high. Further, inter-rater reliability was also found to be very high. The appendix contains the MPA coding manual. Two figures and one table are included.