Mentoring Students and Young People Mentoring Students and Young People
What research says about mentoring programs for students and young people.
What this presentation covers
What this presentation covers
What this presentation covers
What mentoring changes for youth
Mentoring helps young people in four areas
A review of 73 evaluations found gains in behavior, social life, emotions and school.
- Behavior
- Social life
- Emotions
- School
How big the effect is
Expect a real but modest effect
Across 70 studies and 25,286 young people, the effect was real but modest.
Preventing a decline
Mentoring often stops a slide
Mentored youth tended to gain while youth without a mentor declined.
- With a mentor gains on outcome measures
- Without a mentor declines over the same time
Practices that raise the effect
Ongoing training and monitoring pay off
Effects were larger where mentors got ongoing training or programs monitored delivery.
- Ongoing mentor training 0.220.22
- No ongoing training 0.110.11
- Program monitors delivery 0.180.18
- No monitoring 0.060.06
Who benefits most
Youth facing hardship gain the most
Young people from risky or disadvantaged settings were the most likely to benefit.
When mentoring does harm
A poorly run program can harm
For youth with personal vulnerabilities, poorly run programs sometimes did harm.
- Screen mentors before matching
- Train mentors before and during
- Plan structured activities
- Involve parents
- Set how often pairs meet
Who makes a strong mentor
Mentors from helping roles did better
Effects were larger with mentors from helping professions and with shorter meetings.
- Helping profession teachers, for example
- Shorter meetings as the program requires
- More male mentors and more boys served
School-based mentoring
School gains fade after one year
In a trial with 1,139 pupils, school gains from year one did not last.
- Start pupils aged 9 to 16, 10 cities
- End of year one better school results, a special adult
- Year two school gains not sustained
How long matches last
Plan matches to last a year
Among 1,138 adolescents, matches lasting a year or more brought the most gains.
- Ended very early some outcomes fell
- Ended earlier fewer gains
- A year or more most gains
Sources
The research behind this presentation
- DuBois, D. L., Portillo, N., Rhodes, J. E., Silverthorn, N. & Valentine, J. C. (2011) How effective are mentoring programs for youth? A systematic assessment of the evidence Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 12(2), 57-91
- Raposa, E. B., Rhodes, J., Stams, G. J. J. M., Card, N., Burton, S., Schwartz, S., Sykes, L. A. Y., Kanchewa, S., Kupersmidt, J. & Hussain, S. (2019) The effects of youth mentoring programs: A meta-analysis of outcome studies Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 48(3), 423-443
- DuBois, D. L., Holloway, B. E., Valentine, J. C. & Cooper, H. (2002) Effectiveness of mentoring programs for youth: A meta-analytic review American Journal of Community Psychology, 30(2), 157-197
- Herrera, C., Grossman, J. B., Kauh, T. J. & McMaken, J. (2011) Mentoring in schools: An impact study of Big Brothers Big Sisters school-based mentoring Child Development, 82(1), 346-361
- Grossman, J. B. & Rhodes, J. E. (2002) The test of time: Predictors and effects of duration in youth mentoring relationships American Journal of Community Psychology, 30(2), 199-219
Build quality before scale
Train, monitor and keep matches going before adding new matches.