Mapping Paths to Family Justice

Barlow, Anne; Hunter, Rosemary; Smithson, Janet; Ewing, Jan

doi:10.1057/978-1-137-55405-5

Cited by 35 publications

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“…Identifying and understanding the factors that contribute to the capacity to successfully co-parent is crucial for improving the well-being of individuals and their children following separation. In a sociolegal context, Barlow and colleagues [ 7 ] have highlighted separating parents’ ‘emotional readiness’ to engage in dispute resolution as a critical factor in its success. In this paper, we elucidate the concept of emotional readiness to engage with the practicalities of separating, from a psychological perspective, specifically examining separating parents’ emotional adaptation to relationship dissolution.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We envision that there are several beneficial outcomes that might follow from having high emotional adaptation, and these can be generally viewed as falling under two broad categories: 1) good quality of co-parenting (when children are involved), and 2) better engagement with negotiation strategies. These ideas are based on socio-legal research observations that conflict resolution strategies such as mediation tend to fail when clients are not emotionally ready to engage with them [ 7 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…High emotional adaptation to relationship dissolution may also be conducive for engaging with, rather than avoiding, adaptive negotiation strategies, regardless of whether or not there are children involved in the relationship dissolution. Law researchers have theorised that one reason for mediation failing is likely to be low emotional readiness (in one or both parties) to engage with the process [ 7 ]. Research into this idea is lacking, at least in part because until now there has been no clear conceptualisation of separating parents’ emotional readiness to engage in such practicalities, or how to measure it.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Emotional adaptation to relationship dissolution in parents and non-parents: A new conceptual model and measure

et al. 2020

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Relationship dissolution can cause declines in emotional well-being, particularly if there are children involved. Individuals’ capacity to cope with the pragmatics of the situation, such as agreeing childcare arrangements, can be impaired. Before now, there has been no psychometric test to evaluate individuals’ emotional readiness to cope with these demands. This paper presents a model of emotional adaptation in the context of relationship dissolution and its key assumptions, and validates the Emotional Adaptation to Relationship Dissolution Assessment (EARDA). In Study 1 (Sample 1, n = 573 separated parents, Sample 2, n = 199 mix of parents and non-parents), factor analyses support the EARDA as a unidimensional scale with good reliability. In Study 2 (using Sample 1, and Sample 3, n = 156 separated parents) the convergent, discriminant, concurrent criterion-related, and incremental validity of the EARDA were supported by tests of association with stress, distress, attachment style, and co-parenting communication and conflict. In Study 3, the nomological network of emotional adaptation to relationship dissolution was explored in Sample 2 using cluster analysis and multi-dimensional scaling (MDS). Emotional adaptation clustered with positive traits and an outward focus, and was negatively associated with negative traits and an inward focus. Emotional adaptation was conceptually located in close proximity to active and adaptive coping, and furthest away from maladaptive coping. In Study 4 ( n = 30 separated parents embarking on mediation), high, medium, and low emotional adaptation to relationship dissolution categories correlated highly with mediators’ professional judgement, offering triangulated face validity. Finally, in Study 5, EARDA scores were found to mediate between separation characteristics (time since break up, whether it was a shock, and who initiated the break up) and co-parenting conflict in Sample 1, supporting the proposed model. The theoretical innovation of this work is the introduction of a new construct that bridges the gap between relationship dissolution and co-parenting. Practical implications include the use of the measure proposed to triage levels of support in a family law setting.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Emotional adaptation to relationship dissolution in parents and non-parents: A new conceptual model and measure

et al. 2020

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“…While mediation itself remains voluntary, a prior meeting for assessing suitability for mediation is now compulsory for those considering legal proceedings (Children and Families Act 2014 §10(1)). A recent research report recommends too that this mediation information and assessment meeting (MIAM) be replaced by the dispute resolution information and assessment meeting (DRIAM) (Family Justice Review 2011; Barlow, Hunter, Smithson and Ewing 2014). This recommendation obscures the primary purpose of these meetings, namely to establish suitability for mediation, the only dispute resolution process where parties are not legally represented and therefore which requires essential screening for unsuitability (for example, where power imbalances are extreme such as domestic abuse or where capacity to engage is otherwise in question).…”

Section: Phase 4: the Present -The Family Justice Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interdisciplinary influences on family mediation

Marian¹

2017

MTP

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This article contrasts the interdisciplinary enrichment of mediation as a subject of scholarly study with the often distorting even damaging interdisciplinary influences on mediation, family mediation in the UK in particular, as a practice intervention. The article identifies four historical phases of disciplinary influence over the evolutionary development of family mediation from the early welfare and therapeutic influences to those more recent pressures arising from legal practice and from the legal system itself. The article raises current concerns about the detrimental impact these pressures are having on the integrity of mediation practice in providing a genuinely alternative dispute resolution process with distinctive process and outcome benefits for the public. The article argues that lacking conceptual clarity and coherence provided by the rich interdisciplinary body of twentieth-century mediation theory and scholarship, mediation practice becomes vulnerable, unable not only to resist distorting, damaging and even destructive pressures but even to recognise them.

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“…Reference is made to the recent three year study of three distinct forms of dispute resolution: solicitor negotiation, family mediation and collaborative law (Barlow, Hunter, Smithson, & Ewing, 2014). This important contemporary study concluded that services should be better integrated in interdisciplinary terms and geared to individual client need (in the emotional sense, as well as via appropriate use of the law and effective respectful negotiation).…”

Section: Reviewed By: Brian Cantwell the Family Conflicts Consultation Service Hexham Englandmentioning

confidence: 99%

Marian Roberts, Mediation in family disputes: Principles of practice (4th ed.)

Cantwell¹

2016

Journal of Social Work

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Mapping Paths to Family Justice

Cited by 35 publications

References 0 publications

Emotional adaptation to relationship dissolution in parents and non-parents: A new conceptual model and measure

Emotional adaptation to relationship dissolution in parents and non-parents: A new conceptual model and measure

Interdisciplinary influences on family mediation

Marian Roberts, Mediation in family disputes: Principles of practice (4th ed.)

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