Procedural justice and parents' satisfaction in a field study of child custody dispute resolution

The relative importance of procedural and distributive factors for satisfaction was tested in a field study of 71 couples who were randomly assigned to mediate or litigate their child custody dispute. Multiple regression analyses showed that procedural factors (decision control and respect) and distributive factors (feeling of winning what one wanted) were equally influential for parents' satisfaction as a group. However, the relative importance of procedural fairness and outcome favorability differed depending on disputant gender, favorability of outcomes, and level of conflict in the relationship. Support was found for Tyler's (1989) assertion that the specific procedural factor of decision control is especially important in dispute resolution settings. However, contrary to expectation, decision control was relatively more important to satisfaction in mediation than in litigation. It is suggested that the type of allocation setting may not be as influential for satisfaction as participants' status in the proceedings and their perceptions of the level of conflict.