Parents reporting partner violence: Reaching or not reaching agreement in mediation or litigating without mediation

• Published date: 01 May 2023
• Author: Lily J. Jiang,Amy G. Applegate,Claire S. Tomlinson,Fernanda S. Rossi,Connie J. Beck,Jeannie M. Adams,Amy Holtzworth‐Munroe
• Date: 01 May 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/crq.21387

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Parents reporting partner violence: Reaching or

not reaching agreement in mediation or

litigating without mediation

Lily J. Jiang

1

| Amy G. Applegate JD

2

|

Claire S. Tomlinson

1

| Fernanda S. Rossi PhD

3

|

Connie J. Beck PhD

4

| Jeannie M. Adams MA

5

|

Amy Holtzworth-Munroe PhD

1

1

Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA

2

Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA

3

Center for Health Policy and Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research, Center for Innovation to

Implementation (Ci2i), Stanford University jVeterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Stanford jMenlo Park,

California, USA

4

School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences, University of Washington at Tacoma, Tacoma, Washington, USA

5

Multi-Door Dispute Resolution Division, D.C. Superior Court, Washington, DC, USA

Correspondence

Lily J. Jiang, Department of Psychological

and Brain Sciences, Indiana University,

1101 East 10th Street, Bloomington, IN

47405, USA.

Email: ljjiang@iu.edu

Funding information

National Institute of Justice,

Grant/Award Number: 2013-VA-CX-

0044; Office of Justice Programs; U.S.

Department of Justice; VA Office of

Academic Affiliations and Health Services

Research and Development Service

Research

Abstract

Usingdatafromastudyexaminingformsofmediation

designed to be safer for separating parents reporting high

levels of intimate partner violence (IPV; Holtzworth-

Munroe, Applegate, et al., 2021; Holtzworth-Munroe,

Beck, et al., 2021), the current study compares three

groups, cases that reached mediation agreement (“media-

tion agreement group”), did not reach mediation agree-

ment and returned to court (“no mediation agreement

group”), or w ent to court without attempting mediation

(“court group”). Ninety-eight cases started mediation and

68% did not reach agreement. Sixty-six cases went to court

Portions of this study were presented at the conferences of the American Psychology –Law Society, in November 2020,

New Orleans, LA and the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, in November 2021, Cincinnati, OH.

Received: 4 November 2022 Revised: 9 March 2023 Accepted: 15 April 2023

DOI: 10.1002/crq.21387

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits

use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or

adaptations are made.

© 2023 The Authors. Conflict Resolution Quarterly published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.

Conflict Resolution Quarterly. 2023;40:429–446. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/crq 429

without mediation. The mediation agreement group

reported better outcomes, immediately (e.g., felt safer,

less upset, higher satisfaction, faster case resolution,

more likely to address issues and interparental commu-

nication limits) and one-year later (e.g., higher satisfac-

tion, fewer court orders), than the other groups. The

court group only differed from both mediation groups

on a few measures (e.g., lower satisfaction, less likely to

exchange children at parents' homes). The no media-

tion agreement group reported more negative outcomes

than one or both other groups (e.g., less satisfaction,

more harassment from other parent, less social support

at follow-up). In mediation designed to be safer for

cases reporting high levels of IPV and with parties will-

ing to try mediation, reaching agreement was associ-

ated with positive outcomes, and not reaching

agreement was associated with potentially concerning

outcomes. Research is needed to identify risk factors for

not reaching agreement. Additional services may need

to be provided to such cases.

KEYWORDS

agreement, intimate partner violence, litigation, mediation,

parental divorce and separation

1|INTRODUCTION

Intimate partner violence (IPV), defined as physical, sexual, and psychological violence

(WHO, 2019), is reported by a significant number of parents seeking separation or divorce

(e.g., Beck et al., 2013). Notably, separation

1

is associated with increased danger for IPV survi-

vors (e.g., Hardesty et al., 2017). In addition to injury and physical health consequences (Coker

et al., 2002), IPV is associated with survivor psychological symptoms (e.g., depression, post-

traumatic stress). Such consequences may negatively impact effective parenting (Sypher

et al., 2022). Regarding risk for children exposed to IPV, child abuse often co-occurs with inter-

parental IPV (Jouriles et al., 2008). Also, children exposed to IPV are at greater risk for internal-

izing (e.g., depression, anxiety) and externalizing (e.g., aggression) difficulties (Kiesel

et al., 2016; Vibhakar et al., 2019), poorer academic functioning (Cage et al., 2022), and medical

concerns (e.g., obesity, nutritional deficiencies; Holmes et al., 2020). These concerning out-

comes can persist long term (e.g., Vu et al., 2016).

Many separating parents use court processes to settle child-related issues such as custody

and parenting time. More specifically, survivors of IPV in such families may enter family court

systems seeking protections from ongoing abuse for themselves and their children (Gutowski &

430 JIANG ET AL.