Date of Award

2001

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Abstract

The effectiveness of a peer mediation program implemented in a small, low income elementary school (520 students grades kindergarten through fifth) was examined. Twelve fifth grade students were trained in the fall of 1998 to mediate conflicts during the 1998–1999 school year and twelve fourth grade students were trained in the spring of 1999 to serve as conflict managers during the 1999–2000 school year. All conflict managers were trained using the San Francisco Community Boards Program. During the mediation session, conflict managers completed a report form which outlined the research questions and described the types of conflict brought to mediation, the types of strategies students tried prior to mediation and the types of solutions derived from mediation. Additional information was gathered regarding the number of referrals to the principal for the years surrounding the study. A total of 34 conflicts was mediated during the two year period. Results indicated that 46.15% of boy-boy disputant pairs reported conflicts related to aggression/fights, while 50.00% of girl-girl disputant pairs reported conflicts related to insults/rumors/putdowns. Regarding the types of strategies tried prior to mediation, 58.33% of boy-boy pairs selected physical force, whereas girl-girl pairs chose telling an adult/teacher. Boy-boy pairs devised a new solution during the mediation 53.54% of the time, while girl-girl pairs selected apologizing 44.44% of the time. Statistical analyses were not completed due to the limited size of the sample. The total number of referrals to the principal decreased while the peer mediation program was in place. Although the number of mediations was small, the school climate was reported by teachers to have improved after the program was put in place.

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