A Qualitative Study of Parents’ and Children’s Views on Mediation

ABSTRACT

This qualitative study examined the benefits to children of family mediation for divorcing couples and the limitations of such mediation. To capture the perspectives of parents and their children, we invited 40 parents and 10 children to participate in the study. The parent informants reported that mediation improved the efficacy of their parenting and alleviated their children’s stress about their divorce. In contrast, the child informants felt they were powerless when involved in the mediation process and that they received limited support from the mediators. Strategies are proposed for improving the cultural applicability of mediation services for children in a Chinese society.

KEYWORDS:

• Children
• Chinese culture
• divorce
• family mediation
• parent

Acknowledgment

We are grateful for the respondents who were kind enough to participate in the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work used information and data obtained from a study commissioned and funded by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.