Entries by Jean Rhodes

The Recent Government Shutdown Hurt Children and Adolescents: Well-Trained Mentors Can Help

/in , /by

By Jean Rhodes The recent government shutdown led to widespread economic uncertainty which permeated the lives of children and adolescents. And according to a new research, this stress may have lasting effects on young people’s academic prospects, emotional resilience, and sense of selves. In the study, “Perceived economic hardship and adjustment outcomes of children and […]

Inside the Male Mentor Shortage

/in /by

By Jean Rhodes Over the past half-century, the presence of men in boys’ daily lives has declined sharply. Between 1970 and 2023, the proportion of U.S. children living in single-parent families more than doubled, driven largely by increases in female-headed households (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 2023). Teachers, coaches, clergy, and other community […]

A Groundbreaking New Evaluation of Big Brothers Big Sisters

/in /by

By Jean Rhodes This summer, a rigorous four-year RCT of the BBBS community-based mentoring program reported findings that are incredibly promising. The study,  conducted by mentoring researchers David DuBois and Carla Herrera, represents the largest, most rigorous, and longest evaluation of Big Brothers Big Sisters to date. In it, they followed over 1,350 youth across […]

How Mentors Can Promote “Transcendent Thinking”

/in /by

By Jean Rhodes “Kids’ well-being and life satisfaction in their early 20s is predicted by their tendency to engage in transcendent thinking.” Helen Immordino-Yang, Ph.D. The adolescent brain has long been misunderstood as an immature version of the adult mind, characterized primarily by deficits in executive control and a propensity for risky behavior. To counter […]

Will Chatbots Replace Mentors?: Tips for Navigating a Disruptive Technology

/in /by

By Jean Rhodes The term “disruptive technology” has been used to describe innovations that fundamentally transform markets by making complex services simple and expensive products more affordable (Christensen, 1997). This process typically unfolds when new technologies offer different value propositions that are initially inferior in traditional performance metrics but excel in other dimensions such as […]

Would You Like My Advice? New Study Shows How Mentors Can Offer More Effective Advice

/in , /by

Zhou, Y., Li, Y., & Dillard, J. P. (2025). Pushing reactance theory: An examination of the reactance process in the context of advice. Motivation Science, 11(2), 149–157. doi:10.1037 Every mentor has experienced it: you offer what seems like perfectly sound advice to your mentee (or child, parent, friend, etc), only to watch them react defensively […]

Human-at-the-Helm: Imagining AI’s Role in Mentoring Programs

/in /by

By Jean Rhodes   As artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots proliferate across academic and mental health services, mentoring programs face a critical choice: Will we let AI systems take the wheel, or will we keep humans firmly at the helm? The dominant approach emerging in educational and therapeutic contexts is what technologists call “human-in-the-loop” (HITL) design, […]

Boys Need Role Models. Let’s Make Sure They Can Afford Them.

/in /by

By Jean Rhodes In a recent NYTimes article, Claire Cain Miller noted that most of the professionals in children’s lives are women–including 94% of childcare workers, 79% of K–12 teachers, and 69% of pediatricians (Miller, 2025, What Happens When Most of the Adults in Boys’ Lives Are Women). This means many boys and young men […]

Join the Future of AI-Supported Mentoring: Help Shape MentorAI!

/in /by

With funding from NSF and the Tools Competition, MentorPRO is exploring how we can ethically and effectively integrate AI-driven tools into mentoring. We’re seeking to design a tool that provides mentors with just-in-time guidance and summaries, providing mentors with real-time, evidence-based guidance. Unlike standalone chatbots, this approach maintains the mentor connection critical to student well-being […]