Youth mentoring

Youth mentoring is the process of matching mentors with young people who need or want a caring, responsible adult in their lives. Adult mentors are usually unrelated to the child or teen and work as volunteers through a community-, school-, or church-based social service program. The goal of youth mentoring programs is to improve the well-being of the child by providing a role model that can support the child academically, socially and/or personally. This goal can be accomplished through school work, communication, and/or activities. Goals and settings within a mentoring program vary by country because of cultural values.

Although informal mentoring relationships exist, formal, high-quality mentoring matches made through local or state mentoring organizations are often the most effective.

According to The Encyclopedia of Informal Education:

"The classic definition of mentoring is of an older experienced guide who is acceptable to the young person and who can help ease the transition to adulthood by a mix of support and challenge. In this sense it is a developmental relationship in which the young person is inducted into the world of adulthood."

Research on Mentoring Effects

Much research has been conducted on youth mentoring with the intent of determining whether or not there are positive benefits for youth and, if so, under what conditions the positive effects are most likely to occur. The evidence is somewhat mixed, however. According to some studies, not all mentoring programs are found to have positive effects. Furthermore, some studies that demonstrated positive outcomes for youth suggested that benefits from mentoring do not always last for an extended period of time after the intervention has ended.

Meta-Analysis

One method of determining how effective mentoring relationships have become is with the use of meta-analysis. Meta-analysis allows a researcher to synthesize several studies and has been said to provide an unbiased, objective, and quantifiable method to test for significant differences in the results found across studies. Two studies utilizing this method are presented below.

In a meta-analysis of 55 studies on mentoring programs, the overall effectiveness of mentoring as well as the factors relating to variation in mentoring effects were studied. In this study, articles found on popular databases as well as possible search engines (such as Yahoo, etc.) that were published between 1970 and 1998 were selected and evaluated. Findings from this meta-analysis indicated that there was an overall positive, though modest, effect from mentoring. The effect appeared to be especially beneficial for youth classified as “at risk” (see at-risk students) or “disadvantaged”. Further findings indicated that effect size may be increased with the use of specific strategies and practices, such as providing continual support and structure to the mentor and relationship. It is important to note, however, that this study cannot imply causality and further research is recommended to explore this relationship.

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