Victimization and Resilience of Community Mediators

Note: this abstract describes a community-engaged study currently in the field in 8 jurisdictions that is not complete, but on track to be completed in summer 2025.

Background and Purpose

To provide community alternatives to violence and to the overuse of the criminal and civil legal systems, community mediation programs offer nonviolent conflict resolution, numbering over 400 in the United States (Charkoudian & Billick, 2015; Corbett & Corbett, 2013). Mediation is a face-to-face conflict resolution process, which is voluntary and confidential, facilitated by neutral mediators (AAA, ABA & ACR, 2005), in which participants in conflict talk things out, define issues, brainstorm a plan, and write an agreement. Community mediation centers are a mediation delivery system, specifically defined by use of volunteer mediators (30,000+ nationally) who reflect the community’s diversity (Corbett & Corbett, 2013; Hedeen, 2004; Jeghelian et al., 2014). Volunteer community mediators are often motivated to serve by their own history of violence and peace, and their personal experiences have not been studied, with the exception of some work on secondary traumatic stress (Harmon-Darrow & Xu, 2018) and burnout (Nussbaum, 2019). The following questions were explored: [RQ1] What are the trauma and victimization histories of community mediators?, [RQ2] What strengths and resilience do community mediators bring?, [RQ3] What vicarious trauma is experienced by community mediators?, and [RQ4] What vicarious resilience do they experience?

Methods

A mixed-method study was conceived, designed, collected and analyzed by community mediators in 8 jurisdictions. An online survey of 100 mediators is soon to be completed, measuring demographics and: [RQ1] victimization and trauma, in a polyvictimization framework (Finkelhor et al., 2005), using the Community Experiences Questionnaire (Schwartz & Proctor, 2000); [RQ2] strength and resilience, according to the Connor-Davidson resilience scale (CD-RISC) (Connor & Davidson, 2003); [RQ3] vicarious trauma using the secondary traumatic stress subscale of The Professional Quality of Life scale (Stamm, 2010); and [RQ4] vicarious resilience with the Vicarious Resilience Scale (VRS; Killian et al., 2017). The 30 qualitative interviews were co-led by a researcher and a community mediator trained in principles of trauma-informed qualitative research (Alessi & Kahn, 2023). Analysis includes OLS multiple regression and open-coding in NVivo, followed by collaborative thematic development meetings with the community advisory committee.

Results

Initial findings indicate that trauma is common among community mediators, that practitioners experience some vicarious trauma from mediating tough cases, and benefit vicariously from the resilience of their participants/disputants. Bivariate correlations and OLS regression findings will be presented, alongside qualitative themes related to the dynamic relationships between the victimization and resilience of mediators and their practice.

Conclusions and Implications

The research is resulting in a new Practitioner Guide for Trauma-informed Recruitment, Training, Apprenticeship, and Support of Community Mediators, which could have deep impacts on the way centers work with mediators around the country, and the scope and depth of their work. Depending on final collaborative analysis results, the research proposed could support broader arguments for an expanded role for community mediators in preventing and reducing violence in communities.