It's good to know that you got somebody that's not going anywhere: Attitudes and beliefs of older youth in foster care about child welfare-based natural mentoring

This exploratory study is the first to investigate the attitudes and beliefs of older adolescents in foster care toward the implementation of a child welfare-based natural mentoring intervention designed to promote enduring, growth-fostering relationships between youth at risk of emancipation and caring, supportive nonparental adults from within the youth's existing social network. Six focus groups were conducted with 17 older youth in foster care attending a specialized charter high school for young people in out-of-home care in a large, urban city in the Northeast United States. Focus group data were transcribed and analyzed using a conventional content analysis approach. The following significant themes emerged related to natural mentoring for older foster youth emancipating from care: (1) need for permanent relationships with caring adults, (2) youth conceptions of natural mentoring, (3) unique challenges related to natural mentoring for youth in foster care, (4) role of a natural mentoring intervention in child welfare, and (5) challenges for implementing a child welfare-based natural mentoring intervention. Overall, our findings suggest that these young people are cautiously optimistic about the potential of a child welfare-based natural mentoring intervention to promote their social and emotional wellbeing. Future studies are needed to better understand the experiences of older foster youth with an actual natural mentoring intervention, including challenges, opportunities, and outcomes.     

Mentor Attunement: An Approach to Successful School-based Mentoring Relationships

Despite the ongoing popularity and appeal of youth mentoring programs across myriad of contexts, the achievement of high quality relationships between adult volunteers and school-aged youth remains a vital challenge to the work of youth development professionals. This paper outlines the role of mentor attunement in the experience of relationships between volunteer adults and youth in schools. Through an in-depth, inductive analysis of qualitative data, including on-site observation of relationship development over time, attunement at varying levels is illustrated. Implications for future research and program development are discussed.     

Predictors of natural mentoring relationships among former foster youth

Based on a panel survey of 683 foster youth, the current study examined the respective relationships between the characteristics of former foster youth and various attributes of natural mentoring relationships, including the (1) likelihood that youth have a natural mentor, (2) relationship role (e.g., family member, non-family acquaintance) of mentors vis-à-vis youth, (3) frequency of contact between youth and natural mentors, and (4) emotional closeness of the youth-mentor relationship. Study results suggest that a combination of factors, including youths' social-emotional competencies and participation in social institutions (e.g., religious or service organizations) play very different roles in the development and maintenance of positive natural mentoring relationships. Collectively, the findings suggest several potentially important implications for foster youth and natural mentoring policy, practice, and research.     

Natural mentoring among older youth in and aging out of foster care: A systematic review

Due to their histories of caregiver maltreatment, living instability, and potential attachment challenges associated with out-of-home care, older foster youth represent a particularly vulnerable group of adolescents at increased risk for a number of poor well-being outcomes. However, research supports the notion that a relationship with a competent, caring adult, such as a mentor, may serve protectively for vulnerable youth, and a nascent yet growing body of literature suggests that naturally occurring mentoring relationships from within youth's social networks are associated with improved outcomes among young people in foster care during adolescence and the transition to adulthood. This systematic review is the first to comprehensively identify, synthesize, and summarize what we currently know from nearly a decade of theories, concepts, and research findings pertaining to natural mentoring among adolescent youth in foster care. A bibliographic search of seven databases and personal outreach to mentoring researchers and practitioners through a national listserv yielded 38 English-language documents from academic sources and the gray literature pertaining to natural mentoring among older foster youth. We identified quantitative studies that have been conducted to test the theories and hypotheses that have emerged from the qualitative studies of natural mentoring among youth in foster care. Together, this literature suggests that natural mentoring is a promising practice for youth in foster care. Based on our findings from the systematic review, we make practice recommendations to encourage the facilitation of natural mentoring within child welfare contexts and outline an agenda for future research that more rigorously investigates natural mentoring among older youth in foster care.     

Mentoring in the social context: Mentors' experiences with mentees' peers in a site-based program

The primary mechanism by which mentoring promotes positive outcomes is typically considered to be the one-to-one relationship between mentor and youth. However, many mentoring relationships, particularly those in site-based programs, unfold within and are influenced by the larger contexts in which mentoring takes place. In the present study, we examined 161 first-person accounts written by college students serving as Lunch Buddy mentors in an elementary school-based mentoring program. This examination aims to glean insights into mentors' experiences of and responses to their mentees' peers as they carried out the mentoring relationship in a school cafeteria setting, and the ways that mentors' engagement of mentees' peer networks might have influenced the mentoring process. Our analyses delineate the different approaches taken by mentors to engage mentees' peers, and the challenge of focusing on the mentoring relationship while also managing interactions involving mentees' peers. Findings shed light on how the contexts in which mentoring relationships occur shape the course and function of mentoring, and expand our understanding of the processes through which mentoring relationships can promote positive change for mentees.     

Youth mentoring relationships in context: Mentor perceptions of youth,environment, and the mentor role

Youth mentoring is primarily understood as a relationship between mentor and mentee, yet mentors often enter into home, school, and other community settings associated with youth they serve, and interact regularly with other people in mentees' lives. Understanding how and why mentors negotiate their role as they do remains underexplored, especially in relation to these environmental elements. This qualitative study drew on structured interviews conducted with professional mentors (N = 9) serving youth at risk for adjustment problems to examine how mentors' perceptions of their mentees and mentee environments informed their sense of how they fulfilled the mentoring role. Mentors commonly characterized problems youth displayed as byproducts of adverse environments, and individual-level strengths as existing “in spite of” environmental inputs. Perceptions of mentees and their environments informed mentors' role conceptualizations, with some mentors seeing themselves as antidotes to environmental adversity. Mentors described putting significant time and effort into working closely with other key individuals as well as one-on-one with mentees because they identified considerable environmental need; however, extra-dyadic facets of their roles were far less clearly defined or supported. They described challenges associated with role overload and opaque role boundaries, feeling unsupported by other adults in mentees' lives, and frustrated by the prevalence of risks. Community-based mentoring represents a unique opportunity to connect with families, but mentors must be supported around the elements of their roles that extend beyond mentor–mentee relationships in order to capitalize more fully on the promise of the intervention.     

Same-Sex and Cross-Sex Mentoring of Female Protégés: A Comparative Analysis

This article describes a study of mentoring relationships for female retail protégés in cross-sex mentoring relationships and female retail protégés in same-sex mentoring relationships. The results of the study indicated no significant differences between groups on mentor and protégé age differences, protégé career level at relationship onset, company affiliation, mentor characteristics, benefits derived, problems reported, duration of the relationship, terminating causes, resulting feelings or reported value of the mentoring relationship. This research suggests that female protégés can and are benefiting from both male and female mentors due to overriding similarities in same-sex and cross-sex relationships.     

Maternal Employment,Nonparental Care,Mother‐Child Interactions,and Child Outcomes During Preschool Years

This study examines the relationships between maternal employment, nonparental care, mother‐child interactions, and preschoolers’ outcomes. Data from the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (N= 1,248) show that maternal employment during the previous year, especially full‐time employment, was related to care by nonrelatives, longer hours in school settings, fewer positive mother‐child interactions, and less reading with parents at ages 2 and 4. Controlling for these mediators, maternal employment was related to children’s lower hyperactivity, more prosocial behavior, and less anxiety at age 4, although little relationship was found at age 2. The results indicate that preschoolers may benefit from maternal employment, but benefits may be offset by long hours of nonparental care and fewer positive mother‐child interactions.     

Challenges in mentoring at-risk young adults: caseworkers’ perspective

ABSTRACT

This exploratory study examines the barriers, challenges and needs of 30 caseworkers who mentor at-risk young adults during the transition to adulthood. Professional mentoring relationships are an important source of support for at-risk young people. However, literature concerning the mentoring relationship from the perspective of the mentors is scarce. The theoretical thematic analysis revealed two major themes. The first theme- included challenges related to the young adults’ personal histories and characteristics. The second major theme related to the mentors’ expertise within their own services. The most dominant needs during the mentoring process were broad and current knowledge and ongoing training and support. The findings are discussed in relation to the mentoring literature and emerging adulthood theory. Implications for practice highlight the importance of the design and assimilation of programs that enable the promotion of meaningful mentoring relationships via organisational modifications.     

Expanding employment skills and social networks among teen mothers: Case study of a mentor program

The use of mentors in social services programs has become an increasingly common intervention, and typically aims to increase education and job skills among at-risk youth. Because of a lack of social services research, most of what is known about the effects of mentoring relationships has been generalized from studies conducted in corporate settings. This article examines assumptions about the potential effects of mentor programs, and presents the results of an exploratory case study of outcomes of low-income teen mothers who were paired with a professionally employed mentor. Drawing on the concepts of social network theory, it is hypothesized that mentors can link at-risk youth with information and resources not readily available from their extant personal networks.     

The Impact of Superior-Subordinate Gender on the Career Advancement of Public Relations Practitioners

Mentoring relationships may affect career advancement opportunities for public relations practitioners, which in turn may impact role enactment and professional growth of practitioners. A cross-sectional survey was conducted to measure differential treatment of men and women in public relations with regard to mentoring and to assess the impact of mentoring on the career advancement of both groups. Findings indicate that subordinates and superiors of the same sex tend to have a more active and intense mentoring relationship than mixed-sex pairings. Female supervisors in public relations offer more active and intense mentoring to their subordinates than do male supervisors. Paradoxically, superior mentoring by female superiors yields fewer career advancement opportunities for their subordinates. Male supervisors seem more effective than female supervisors in providing subordinates career advancement. Practitioners with male mentors, regardless of gender, tend to have greater access to management advancement and have more opportunities to enact the manager role.     

Exploring relationships among boys and men: A retrospective,qualitative study of a multi-year community-based group mentoring program

Mentoring has been established as a useful mechanism by which to reduce risk and promote a variety of beneficial outcomes across age groups and settings. However, very little research has explored long-term group mentoring programs for adolescents, and researchers have not established the optimal approach to mentoring relationships among boys and men. This study interviewed a cohort of recent graduates from the Stepping Stones Project, a group mentoring program for boys that began in 6th grade and continued until the end of high school. Several themes emerged from the interviews, including: (a) the SSP encouraged an open, honest style of communication that the youth learned to adapt through observation and experience; (b) the youth and co-leaders developed intimate, trusting relationships; (c) the supportive environment enabled the youth to explore their own identity and develop greater self-knowledge; (d) the transition ceremony provided a venue in which the youths' growing maturity could be seen and recognized by parents; (e) the structure of the SSP enabled the youth to take on increasing responsibility for planning and managing group activities, and (f) the parent group provided an important source of support and community for parents during the adolescent transition. These themes are discussed in terms of current theory and research on mentoring and adolescent development.     

Teen Childbearing and Depression: Do Pregnancy Attitudes Matter?

The relationship between teen childbearing and depression has been extensively studied; however, little is known about how young women's own attitudes toward becoming pregnant shape this association. This study used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to investigate whether the relationship between teen childbearing and adult depression is moderated by adolescent attitudes toward becoming pregnant. The results showed that although, on average, women who had first births between ages 16 and 19 experienced no more depressive symptoms in adulthood than women who had first births at age 20 or older, the relationship between teen childbearing and adult depression varied significantly based on adolescent pregnancy attitudes. When they had negative adolescent attitudes toward getting pregnant, teen mothers had similar levels of depression as adult mothers, but when they had positive adolescent pregnancy attitudes, teen mothers actually had fewer depressive symptoms than women with adult first births.     

Parent–Youth Conflict and School Delinquency/Cigarette Use: The Moderating Effects of Gender and Associations with Achievement-Oriented Peers

Hypothesized gender-specific relationships between parent–youth conflict and youth's school delinquency and cigarette use, and the moderating effect of associations with achievement-oriented peers are estimated using information provided by a national sample of high school students (National Education Longitudinal Study [NELS] 1988–1990, N =13,348). Multiple regression analyses yielded results as follows: Conflict with fathers is more related to adolescent sons' school delinquency and cigarette use than adolescent daughters' while conflict with mothers is only predictive of daughters' school delinquency and cigarette use. Further, associations with highly achievement-oriented peers tend to mitigate adverse effect of conflict with the same-sex parent on school delinquency and cigarette use. These results are observed while controlling for putative common antecedent variables.     

Adolescents' Emotional Experiences of Mother–Adolescent Conflict Predict Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms

Research on adolescent emotion has generally focused on expressions of emotion; however, there are reasons to believe that adolescents' experiences of emotion may be related to adolescent development in unique and important ways. This study examined the relation of adolescents' emotional experiences of conflict with their mothers to their internalizing and externalizing symptoms at three time points, each a year apart. After participating in videotaped conflict negotiation tasks with their mothers, adolescents (N=80) watched the videotape of their interactions and used a joystick to make continuous ratings of how negative, positive, or neutral they felt during the discussions. Hierarchical Linear Modeling was used to assess relations among their continuous emotion ratings and their internalizing and externalizing symptoms 1 year before the interaction task, at the time of the interaction task, and 1 year later. Adolescents' externalizing symptoms at the time of the conflict task were associated with negative emotion that decreased across the conflict discussion. Relations between emotional experience and internalizing symptoms a year later were moderated by adolescent gender, revealing that a tolerance for increasing negative emotion predicts fewer future internalizing symptoms for girls. The importance of adolescents' ability to tolerate negative emotion during normal developmental conflicts is discussed.     

Nonparental Adults as Social Resources in the Transition to Adulthood

This short‐term longitudinal study examined whether the social resources of important nonparental adults (VIPs) perceived by youth during their senior year of high school had a significant relation to their educational and socioemotional adjustment 1 year later. One month before their high school graduation, a multiethnic sample of youths (N=754) reported on their grades, educational expectations, and selected psychosocial characteristics (i.e., depressed mood and misconduct); the educational attainment and perceived psychosocial characteristics of an important nonparental adult in their lives; and the educational plans and perceived psychosocial characteristics of their close friends. Key measures were included in a mailed survey 1 year later. VIP characteristics (particularly their educational attainment) were associated with post‐high school adjustment, even after controlling for previous level of youth adjustment and contributions from demographic and peer characteristics.     

Developing Effective Mentoring Relationships: Strategies From the Mentor's Viewpoint

Mentoring is being increasingly used by companies as a means of fostering employee learning and development. Limited research exists from the perspective of the mentor on these relationships. This article presents the results of a qualitative study that investigated the characteristics that the ideal mentor should possess and ways that both mentors and protégés can make mentoring relationships most effective. Findings from the study are used to frame suggestions for future research and practice.     

Planning a mentorship initiative for foster parents: Does gender matter?

Despite the use of mentoring programs in fields such as business, career training, and youth development, little is known about how mentoring can be used to train and support new foster parents. This paper describes how Concept Mapping was used with current foster parents to develop a conceptual framework suitable to plan a foster parent mentor program. A secondary aim of this study was to explore priority differences in the conceptualization by self-reported gender (foster mothers vs. foster fathers). Participant data was collected via three qualitative brainstorming sessions, and analyzed using non-metric multidimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analysis. Findings indicate that foster parents participating in this study conceptualized effective mentor programs via a seven cluster solution. Study results also showed no significant differences in cluster ratings by gender. Implications for practice and program planning are identified, as well as areas for future research.     

A parent's place: Parents', mentors' and program staff members' expectations for and experiences of parental involvement in community-based youth mentoring relationships

Youth mentoring has been conceptualized largely as a dyadic relationship between a mentor and mentee, with less attention paid to the role of parents. This study contributes to an emerging body of research on parent involvement by examining expectations for parents' roles in the mentoring process held by program staff, mentors, and parents themselves. In-depth interviews with mentoring program staff (n = 12), mentors (n = 30), and a parent or guardian of the youth being mentored (n = 30) were analyzed to identify these participants' views on the role of parents. Findings indicate that mentors and program staff were more aligned in their views and tended to be more focused on the ways that parents could potentially interfere with or otherwise disrupt the mentor–youth relationship. Parents' views were more varied and rooted in differences in both their individual values and beliefs about the role of a mentor in their child's life, their parenting styles and ways they expected adults outside of the family who were interacting with their child to engage with them. Implications for future research on parent involvement and for mentoring program practices are discussed.