Resolution has been contacted by a research team at the University of Exeter who want to interview people who practice child-inclusive mediation (CIM). It is part of a project to better understand the current picture of CIM training, practice and experience, barriers to increasing uptake and the benefits/risks of CIM.
Find out more about the project below. If you’re interested in taking part in this project, please contact Dr Jan Ewing.
About the project
This research is part of a larger project looking at healthy transitions into and out of relationships of various kinds across the lifecourse. Many young people face the transition to post-separation family life following the breakdown of their parents’ relationship. Child-inclusive mediation (CIM) has been shown to ameliorate the negative effects of parental separation on children by reducing parental conflict, yet in the UK CIM uptake is currently low and there has been little research on CIM in this jurisdiction. By interviewing mediators who practise CIM and parents and children about their experience of CIM we hope to gain a better understanding of the current picture on CIM training, practice and experience; key messages about best practice; barriers to increasing uptake and the benefits/risks of CIM. This will help to make CIM better understood and more accessible for parents and children and build practitioner confidence in the process.
The Researchers
We are an experienced interdisciplinary team from the University of Exeter with recognised expertise in family law and policy, medicine and education. This phase of the research is led by Professor Anne Barlow with Research Fellow, Dr Jan Ewing in the Law School. The project is funded by the Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health. The College of Social Sciences and International Studies Research Ethics Committee at the University of Exeter has approved the project (Reference Number 201920-017 and 201920-40).
How you can help
We have mediators with a well-established CIM practice for interview, but we need assistance from the mediation community to:
- Help us to recruit parents to interview. Interviews are by telephone and last around 45-60 minutes. Parents interviewed receive a £20 Amazon voucher.
- Help us to recruit young people to interview. Interviews are by telephone or face to face and last 30-45 minutes. Young people interviewed receive a £15 Amazon voucher.
If you are willing to help with recruitment, please contact us and we will send you an invitation, information sheet and draft covering email to send to parents from the last 5 mediations you conducted in which you met with the child. All contact after that is between the research team and the parents so administration for you is relatively limited.
If you would like further information please contact: Jan Ewing, Law School, University of Exeter, tel: 07971008931, email: J.Ewing@exeter.ac.uk
