In 2014, the Administrative Office of the Courts in Maryland issued a groundbreaking study of mediation. This study, “What Works in Child Access Mediation: Effectiveness of Various Mediation Strategies on Custody Cases and Parents’ Ability to Work Together,”1 considered the parties’ perspectives, before and after participating in the process. Simultaneously, the study also looked at the mediator’s manner of practice.
The breadth of the study—conducted using cases in Maryland Family Court in three counties—provides great insight into what mediator strategies and techniques are most (and least) effective for parties in various degrees and stages of conflict. Until now, there have been studies of the effects of mediation on parties,2 and studies of the work of the mediator in a “black box” manner. But never before had these two components been looked at to determine how the work of the mediator impacts the participants. This research is unprecedented; it both confirms and challenges what practitioners study, implement and anecdotally experience.
