Browsing by Subject "mediation"

The socioeconomic status (SES) of the family is associated with the food consumption of the children and this association is mediated by different mediators. This study had two aims; firstly, to determine the associations between the determinants of SES and children’s food consumption, secondly to assess the mediating effects of food availability and parental role-modeling of the above associations. Parental educational level and relative income of the family were studied as the determinants of SES. Children’s food consumption was measured under two categories; fruits & vegetables (FV) and sugary food & drinks (SFD). Data was obtained from the baseline data collection of the DAGIS intervention study in 2017 which was conducted in 32 preschools in Salo (N=29) and Riihimäki (N=3). A FFQ filled by the parents was used to determine children’s food consumption. Information on parental educational level, family income, food availability, and parental role-modeling was extracted from the self-administered parental questionnaire. Parents of 698 preschool children aged from 3 to 6 years filled the parental questionnaire. Spearman’s correlations tests were conducted to determine the associations between SES determinants and children’s food consumption. Mediating roles of food availability and parental role-modeling were assessed through mediation analysis using PROCESS version 3 macro for SPSS. Parental educational level was a statistically significant predictor of children's FV consumption. Family relative income did not predict FV or SFD consumption of the children. The multiple mediators model revealed that the association between the parental educational level and children’s consumption of FV was partially mediated by three mediators: the availability of FV, parental role-modeling of FV, and the availability of SFD. The association between the relative income of the family and children's consumption of FV was fully mediated by two mediators: home availability of FV, and parental role-modeling of FV. This study suggested parental educational level is a better predictor of children’s food consumption compared to family income. The mediation roles of food availability and parental role-modeling should be taken into account in developing interventions to improve the FV and SFD consumption of children in Finland.

Despite the identity-based nature of hate crimes, previous studies on hate crime mediation have not yet explored the role of social identity in this process. Thus, this research investigates mediators’ perspectives and experiences on the role and effect of social identity on the mediation of hate crime, hate incidents and prejudice-based behaviour by applying Tajfel’s and Turner’s Social Identity Theory. In addition, it outlines strategies to mitigate its influence on the mediation process and evaluates approaches to conflict resolution rooted in Social Identity Theory. Data for this study was collected through eight semi-structured thematic interviews with Finnish mediators in the field of victim-offender mediation and community mediation from March until May 2023. Qualitative content analysis was applied as a method of data analysis. The results revealed the diversity of mediators’ accounts regarding the role of social identity in mediation. Participants’ descriptions of exemplary case examples outline the potential effects of social identity on the mediation of hate crime, particularly a strong ingroup-outgroup distinction in connection with overgeneralised outgroup perspectives and negative outgroup attitudes. The findings suggest that differences in social identity between the mediator and the participants can lead to biased views towards the mediators, creating the necessity to build trust and emphasise the mediators’ impartiality to bridge identity differences. Diversity among the mediators seems to support these processes. Moreover, the study has identified three strategies to avoid the influence of mediators’ social identities on mediation: (1) Becoming aware of their own social identity, (2) reflecting their own stereotypes and prejudice, and (3) achieving an understanding of the clients’ social identity. To mitigate the influence of participants social identities in mediation two strategies have been identified: (1) Asking critical questions, and (2) facilitated conversation and discussion. Despite the potential positive effects of addressing social identity on the mediation process, limitations of this approach are also outlined in this study. The results offer tools for mediators to deal with and address social identities and related bias in mediation, to understand the potential impact of their own social identities and provides knowledge on their effect in hate crime mediation. Future studies could investigate participants’ perspectives on the matter and study the effectiveness of these approaches for long-term bias reduction, which could further support the success of the mediation process in times of internationalization, societal diversification, and polarization.

The focus of this Master’s degree thesis is on the role of priors in a small sample Bayesian serial mediation. In particular, it examines how changing the informativeness of priors influences posterior parameter estimates and probability distributions. The empirical example in the study is taken from the field of applied linguistics. The research hypotheses address how the linguistic composition of two bilingual municipalities in Finland impact on the frequency of interpersonal contact young Finnish speakers have with Swedish speakers, which, in turn, increases young Finnish speakers’ communicative competence in Swedish enhancing the use of Swedish in interpersonal communication. The datasets used in the study are exchangeable; they were collected in the same population, in the Finnish secondary schools in Kokkola/Karleby and Pietarsaari/Jakobstad, with identical measures. The first dataset was collected in 2014 (N = 202) and it is used as prior sample in the analyses. The second dataset was collected in 2014 (N = 55) and it is used as the focal sample in the analyses. The results demonstrate that the grade of informativeness of priors fundamentally influences the outcomes of the mediational analyses. When using noninformative priors, some parameters do not differ from zero and the model suggests no mediated effect. However, when using informative priors, both parameter estimates and the mediated effect appear to be different from zero. Controversies around using priors in Bayesian analysis and their significance in empirical applications are discussed.

The mediation of intimate partner violence (IPV) has been statutorily regulated in Finland since year 2006. Earlier IPV was mediated around Finland to different extents. The mediation of IPV has been very controversial from the very beginning. Status of victims has been considered bad, there have been doubts about her/his voluntariness and it has been seen that the suspect is too slightly affected. On the other hand there has been a lot good experiences of mediation and the parties have been instructed to further services. This thesis studies perceived justice and voluntariness in the mediation of IPV and perceived mediation procedures of mediation parties and mediators. As a control group in the study there were mediation parties and mediators of cases with other violence than IPV. The study was cross-sectional and the survey aimed to cover all parties and mediators of IPV and non-IPV violence mediation cases managed by three service providers in Finland during 12 months period. Measure of perceived justice was based on results by Colquitt (2001) and Gramatikov et al (2009), measure of voluntariness was based on self-regulation questionnaires of self-determination theory and measure of mediation procedure was based on the metamodel of Alexander (2008). The survey was tested by employees of mediation service providers and by voluntary mediators. After a short period it was found that the response rate is very low. As a corrective action the survey was truncated but despite survey simplification response rate did not achieve target level. Data (n = 169) was analysed with R software using illustrative figures, factor analysis, non-parametric test, linear regression analysis and logistic regression analysis. Based on study data mediation parties perceive mediation as more fair than mediators. Parties also perceive that mediators control more the process than mediators assess but parties are more satisfied with the mediation than mediators assess. There are no differences of perceived voluntariness and justice between IPV mediation and other violence than IPV mediation. Facilitative mediation style is in positive relation with perceived justice in IPV cases but in control group no relation was seen between the constructs. Almost all mediation parties are very satisfied with the mediation and their perceived justice is very positive. Even the parties see that they are voluntarily in mediation, they might feel guilty if they were not aiming to reconciliation, or they might think that their refusal to participate mediation could upset the other party. Study data supports that it’s reasonable to continue IPV mediation but attention should be drawn to the genuine desire and capacity of the parties to participate mediation. In the thesis there are some recommendations how to develop mediation activities. Further studies are needed to understand better IPV mediation effectiveness and how the parties and mediators perceive the mediation. In the thesis a study design is presented to get valid and reliable data for continuous development of IPV mediation activities.