ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by specifying the kinds of issues typically discussed during divorce mediation, with a particular emphasis on how these issues might affect the mediation process. It reviews prior research exploring the variety of strategies and tactics mediators use to increase disputant cooperation and to improve the chances for long-term agreement. The chapter then turns to research on marital interaction and verbal aggression to learn what is known about how marital couples are likely to communicate in this highly intense conflict setting. Mediators establish a number of rules during mediation. One set of rules deals with agenda of the meeting. Generally, mediators try to establish an agenda that moves disputants through a set of phases so that information builds on itself and creates the foundation for an agreement. Pruitt et al. found in a recent field study in a community mediation context that caucuses helped mediators get to know disputants better psychologically by learning their needs, motivations, and emotions.
