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This study of 175 Mexican-origin families examined a mediational modal linking the linguistic acculturation of mothers and adolescents with a wide array of family mediators and adolescent mental health outcomes. Family linguistic acculturation, a latent construct based on maternal and adolescent acculturation, was positively related to increased family and interparental conflict but was not related to maternal parenting practices. Family conflict mediated the link between acculturation and two adolescent outcomes, conduct problems and depressive symptoms. Family acculturation showed a complex pattern of positive, indirect (mediated) and negative, direct effects on adolescent depressive symptoms. Findings are discussed in relation to traditional cultural values of Mexican heritage families and prevailing theories about why more acculturated Mexican-origin youth are at increased risk for problem behaviors. Key Words: acculturation, adolescence, conduct problems, depression, family conflict, Mexican, parenting.

Family court mediation offers a gateway for social work with children and families whose needs are left untouched by current services. Literature and research are drawn to review the relationship between family court and social work.

A sample of 149 couples was assessed for spouse violence prior to family court mediation. Standard mediation was conducted without the participants or mediators knowing who was classified as violent or nonviolent. The 65 couples who reached full agreement were grouped according to whether they had ever had a violent dispute during the relationship. Violent couples who reached agreements chose terms granting wives significantly more power in terms of control over custody and visitation than the nonviolent couples chose. This suggests that wives of violent husbands were empowered sufficiently during standard mediation to negotiate somewhat more powerful, safer terms for themselves than was necessary for wives of nonviolent husbands. Nevertheless, 57% of all agreements between violent couples specified a form of shared custody, which is thought to promote too much future contact between the violent ex-spouses. This tendency for violent spouses to choose shared custody is interpreted to mean that wives need violence screening and special protective intervention measures to successfully negotiate safer, more restrictive sole custody agreements.

Mediation as a problem-solving intervention in social work became more widely used during the late 1970s to the 1980s in situations such as child custody and divorce, child-parent conflicts, and family disputes. The author argues that the mediator role is inherent in social work, and examines the context for the assumptions underlying it. The nature of conflicts, the issue of neutrality within the social work value base, and the power-retention qualities of mediation are also discussed.

This study investigated the mediations of ninety-seven community mediators in the People's Republic of China. The mediators' reports on two medications each -- one successful and one unsuccessful -- indicated the frequency with which they use twenty-seven mediation techniques. In addition, their information revealed the strategies -- assist, procedural, educate, and external reliance -- they employ in their mediations. It was found that Chinese mediators utilize the same techniques and strategies in successful versus nonsuccessful mediations; yet, their techniques and strategies differ in couple (husband-wife) as opposed to noncouple disputes.

A survey of 394 parents and children in 2nd through 6th grades was conducted to explore the relations between parental mediation of violent television and children's generalized and TV-induced aggressive tendencies. In addition, explanations for why mediation is related to aggression were sought by exploring a number of intervening variables. It was found that parental active mediation and restrictive mediation were both negatively related to children's generalized and TV-induced aggressive inclinations, whereas parental coviewing was positively related to children's TV-induced aggressive tendencies. The data also revealed that parental mediation works by first influencing either how important children perceive violent TV to be or how much attention they grant this content, which, in turn, influences aggressive tendencies. Hence, parental mediation seems to socialize children into an orientation toward TV that makes them less vulnerable to negative effects.