Peer mediation training for adolescents: an evaluation using a focus group interview

This pilot study explores how adolescents, who have been trained in peer mediation, use their skills within a school-based peer mediation program, and how these same adolescents transfer their peer mediation skills to other areas of their lives. It also explores how adolescents trained as peer mediators think this training has affected them. Three adolescent peer mediators discussed their experiences with their mediation skills in a focus group setting. They reported using their mediation skills in their family, work, and social lives as well as in the school-based peer mediation program. All of the participants indicated that they thought they were better communicators and felt more confident in their abilities to resolve conflict as a result of their peer mediation training. Recommendations for school-based peer mediation programs provide useful information for practitioners who might wish to institute a similar program.--Page ii.