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This paper aims to analyse the different requirements of Practice Direction 15.10 (which governs the process of family mediation in Hong Kong) and Practice Direction 31 (which governs the process of general mediation in Hong Kong), and to highlight the need to incorporate the spirit of family mediation into legislation to better protect children’s interest in a family dispute.

The paper reviews and compares the content on Practice Direction 15.10 and Practice Direction 31 issued by Chief Justice of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal, and adopts interpretative and analytical approaches to evaluate their impact.

In an effort to promote parental responsibility-based negotiation in divorce proceeding, a missed opportunity in enacting the Children Proceedings (Parental Responsibility) Bill in 2015 might be a blessing in disguise as it offers another chance for policy makers to consider how to direct parties to negotiate and communicate, to seek and benefit from professional guidance on a continuous basis, and to seek alternative channels to resolve disputes other than the court room. The policy and the law advocating a switch from a “rights-based” to “responsibility-based” approach in handling children’s matters should be revisited by incorporating the spirit of family mediation into legislation.

Analyses are conducted through direct contextual review and documentary research. This paper conducts literal analysis of court guidance and unveils policy implications for the general public. It would be of interest to judicial officers, scholars and government officials concerning children’s rights and parental responsibility in divorce proceedings.

This study investigated the mediations of 125 community mediators in the People's Republic of China. The mediators' reports on two mediations each—one in a community (inter‐family) and one in a family (intra‐family) dispute—indicated the frequency with which they used 33 mediation techniques. In family (versus community) mediations, Chinese mediators were found to rely more heavily upon the techniques of separating the parties, getting assistance from third parties, calling for empathy, stating the other side's point of view, and utilizing logic. As for the strategies (combinations of techniques) employed, we found three distinct ones—separate, analyze together, criticize—in the family mediations. Two sets—reason together and criticize—were detected in the community mediations.

Guided by Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological System’s model, this study documented acculturation and parental involvement in low-income Chinese immigrant homes that serve as predictors of parental mediation. By surveying 165 parents of 3–13-year-old immigrant children, this study found that low-income Chinese parents enacted restrictive mediation the most and exhibited a slow acculturation process even after an average of seven years of emigration. Higher parental acculturation was related to a higher use of active and restrictive mediation. Additionally, different aspects of parental involvement also served as predictors of the three mediation strategies. Chinese cultural emphasis on academic excellence and success was used to help interpret the findings. Future research should consider implementing research-based adult media literacy programs for immigrant parents to help them practice their parental mediation skills in the host culture.

The purpose of this study is to understand mediation in divorce cases where intimate partner violence (IPV) is a concern. These cases may involve managing power imbalances, coercive control or risk for continued violence.

In this paper, the authors use feminist and sociological theoretical approaches and grounded theory to analyze triangulated ethnographic data to explore how mediators construct and manage the issue of IPV in mediation.

The results indicate that mediators often share a common discourse about IPV that asserts that mediators are professionals with the skills to both identify IPV and to appropriately conduct mediations where IPV is present. However, to achieve successful mediations mediators sometimes choose to discount the seriousness of IPV in assessments. They also use a set of fluid strategies to handle potential power imbalances that allow them to represent themselves as unbiased, even while those strategies risk the equity of the mediation.

The authors share several strategies that could enhance the social justice of the process for all parties, including uniformity in assessing whether IPV is a concern and oversight of mediators’ practices and training.

The results indicate mediators often share a common discourse about IPV that asserts mediators are professionals with the skills to identify IPV and to appropriately conduct mediations where IPV is present. To reach settlement mediators use a set of fluid mediation and accommodation strategies to handle potential power imbalances due to IPV that allow them to represent themselves as impartial, even while those strategies may risk equity in the mediation.

The unique data provide a behind-the-scenes look at mediation generated from participant observation of mediation training and actual mediations, along with interviews with 30 practicing mediators.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship of schedule flexibility with performance and satisfaction in the work and family domains, and whether these associations are mediated by the work‐family interface. Possible gender differences in the putative benefits of schedule flexibility are also to be explored.

Using a sample of 607 full‐time employees in either schedule flexibility or traditional working arrangements the authors tested a moderated‐mediation model. Regression was used to test the mediation of work‐family and the moderation of gender to the schedule flexibility to work‐family path.

Both work‐to‐family conflict and work‐to‐family enrichment are mediating mechanisms in the relationship of schedule flexibility with outcomes. More specifically, full mediation was found for job satisfaction and family performance for both enrichment and conflict while partial mediation was found for family satisfaction with enrichment only and mediation was not supported for job performance. Finally, gender moderated the schedule flexibility to work‐family conflict relationship such that women benefited more from flexible working arrangements than men.

The paper adds value by examining a mediation mechanism in the schedule flexibility with the outcome relationship of the work‐family interface. It also adds value by including work‐family enrichment which is a key variable but has little research. Finally, it adds value by demonstrating that schedule flexibility plays a stronger role for women than men regarding the work‐family interface.

The experience of working from home, which people had to deal with in the aftermath of the global pandemic crisis, was a test of resilience and does not necessarily have to be analysed in a negative light. In this sense, this study aims to analyse the impact of the perceived schedule flexibility, in the context of telework, on stress and satisfaction with family life among academic staff. To this end, a model was implemented to analyse the mediation role of family–work conflict.

Data was collected from 248 questionnaires presented to educators and office staff at universities when teleworking was initiated due to the pandemic confinement. Structural equation analysis was designed to test the study hypotheses.

By applying a model which uses the effect of mediation of the family–work conflict, the results revealed that the perception of flexibility resulting from telework influences stress at work, as well as satisfaction with family life among academic staff.

There is a need to study the conditions required in the implementation of telework. This study is specifically intended to deepen some of the findings of previous studies in this area and to provide a greater understanding of how perceived flexibility can contribute to a decrease in stress and higher levels of satisfaction by reducing family interference with work.

This paper presents an overview of research and practice literature on the use of Mediation (M) and Family Group Conferences (FGC) in the context of adult safeguarding in the UK.

This paper describes the main features of M and FGC and explores how such “family led” approaches to adult safeguarding fit within the wider agenda of personalisation and empowerment, including the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and its associated Code of Practice. It also considers the main implications for best practice and future research and service priorities.

M and FGC in an adult context are inclusive processes that enable people to explore choices and options in a supportive environment, assuring maximum possible independence and autonomous control over basic life decisions, while still addressing the person's need for assistance. When used appropriately, both approaches can be a valuable response to safeguarding concerns, promoting choice and control at the same time as protecting people from risk of abuse and harm. However, there are few robust evaluation studies currently available and no systematic research studies were found on cost‐effectiveness.

The paper shows that there is a clear need for further pilots of M and FGC in adult safeguarding. If such research and pilot evaluations find M and/or FGC to be effective, then more consideration will need to be given as to how to integrate such approaches into mainstream social work practice. There is also currently wide variation in the training and experience of mediators and FGC co‐ordinators, and further work is required to ensure that there are appropriate training and accreditation models in the UK for mediators and FGC co‐ordinators working with at‐risk adults.

The purpose of this study is to explore possible factors leading to a successful mediation in Chinese mediation shows. In China, media always play an indispensable role in information dissemination, morality advocacy and policy explanation.

This paper employed content analysis of 166 episodes of one representative mediation show, Gold Medal Mediation, and regression technique in data analysis.

Results of ordinal regression suggested that “secret talking”, rather than transparency, between disputants had significant influence on successful mediation. Function of mediators is limited in reaching full mediation. The effective factors leading to full mediation include compromise of rights, secret talking, attitude of the observer cohort. It suggests that the role of mediator is limited, rather than being over-exaggerated, in successful mediation. The successful mediation is largely dependent on disputants’ motivations. Additionally, “compromise of rights” by disputants is a key factor in solving disputes.

Findings of this study revealed the role of Chinese mediation shows in propagating mediation in contemporary Chinese society and supporting upheld morality values. Due to the nature of the chosen mediation show, some disputes take more than one episode to solve. However, this study looks at each episode without considering the integrity of the dispute. That is, if the disputes take two episodes, the coder codes the two episodes as two separate disputes instead of looking at it as one dispute.

By exploring various aspects of mediations shows, including the role of mediators, disputants and a cohort of observers, this study can both explicitly show predicted factors to successful mediations on the shows, and can implicitly examine the power and perceived justification of mediation in contemporary China via media.

The purpose of this study is to analyse the mediating effect of friends and family as sources of perceived social support in the relationship between loneliness and depressive symptoms.

Survey data sample consisted of 733 university students from January to May 2023. Participants completed the UCLA loneliness scales, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MPSS) and Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21). The SPSS programme with PROCESS macro (Model 6) was used to test the hypothesis regarding the mediation effect.

The bootstrap analysis found that friends as a source of social support mediated the relationship between loneliness and depressive symptoms. Similarly, loneliness had a significant indirect effect on depressive symptoms through the mediation of family as a source of social support. Moreover, it was found that the relationships of friends and family as sources of social support mediated the association of the aforementioned variables.

This research advances our understanding of social support sources from friends and family amongst university students whilst providing suggestions for interventions tackling loneliness and depressive symptoms in a university setting.