Peer Mediation in an Inner-City Elementary School

Abstract

The effectiveness of peer mediation was examined in an inner-city elementary school. Thirty-four third-grade and fourth-grade students in a prekindergarten to fourth-grade elementary school were trained as peer mediators to help resolve schoolmates’ conflicts. They mediated 206 conflicts during the academic year, 91% of which were relationship problems involving physical (41%) and verbal (50%) aggression. Before mediation, the conflict strategies students used primarily were physical force (44%) and verbal intimidation (56%) to coerce the other person to yield. Mediation most commonly resulted in an agreement to avoid each other in the future (74%) followed by apologizing and forgiving each other (16%).

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Araki, C. (1990). Dispute management in schools. Mediation Quarterly, 8, 51-62.

Blake, R. , & Mouton, J. (1964). The managerial grid. Houston, TX: Gulf.

Burrell, N. , & Vogl, S. (1990). Turf-side conflict mediation for students. Mediation Quarterly, 7, 237-250.

Deutsch, M. (1973). Resolution of conflict. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Eagly, A. , & Steffen, V. (1986). Gender and aggressive behavior: A meta-analytic review of the social psychological literature. Psychological Bulletin, 100, 309-330.

Hartup, W. (1974). Aggression in childhood: Developmental perspectives. American Psychologist, 29, 336-341.

Higgins, A. , & Priest, S. (1990). Resolving conflicts between young people. Education Psychology in Practice, 6, 60-64.

Johnson, D. W. (1970). The social psychology of education. New York: Holt-Rinehart & Winston.

Johnson, D. W. (1971). Students against the school establishment: Crisis intervention in school conflicts and organizational change. Journal of School Psychology, 9, 84-92.

10.

Johnson, D. W. , & Johnson, F. (1997). Joining together: Group theory and group skills (6th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

11.

Johnson, D. W. , & Johnson, R. (1995). Teaching students to be peacemakers (3rd ed.). Edina, MN: Interaction Book Company.

12.

Johnson, D. W. , Johnson, R. , & Dudley, B. (1992). Effects of peer mediation training on elementary school students. Mediation Quarterly, 10, 89-99.

13.

Johnson, D. W. , Johnson, R. , Dudley, B. , & Acikgoz, K. (1994). Peer mediation: Effects of conflict resolution training on elementary school students. Journal of Social Psychology, 134, 803-817.

14.

Johnson, D. W. , Johnson, R. , Dudley, B. , & Magnuson, D. (1995). Training elementary school students to manage conflicts. Journal of Social Psychology, 135, 673-686.

15.

Krappman, L. , & Oswald, H. (1987). Negotiation strategies in peer conflicts: A follow-up study in natural settings. Paper presented at the Society for Research in Child Development Convention, Baltimore. (ERIC Reproduction Service No. ED 282641)

16.

Maccoby, E. , & Jacklin, C. (1974). The psychology of sex differences. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

17.

McCormick, M. (1988). Evaluation of the Wakefield pilot peer-mediation program: Summary report. In P. Kestner , V. Kim , & J. Devonshire (Eds.), Education and mediation: Exploring the alternatives (pp. 265-273). Washington, DC: The Standing Committee on Dispute Resolution, American Bar Association, Governmental Affairs and Public Services Group.

18.

Thomas, K. (1976). Conflict and conflict management. In M. Dunnette (Ed.), Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology (pp. 889-935). Chicago: Rand McNally.