Entries by Jean Rhodes

Two new studies highlight the need for more targeted mentoring

/in /by

by Jean Rhodes Doctoral student, Alejandro Vázquez, and his faculty mentor, Professor Miguel Villodas had a hunch. They suspected that caregivers were seeking out volunteer mentoring programs as an alternative to traditional mental health services. Villodas, a clinical psychologist, had served as a mentor to several youth, and Vasquez, a doctoral student, was studying patterns […]

How natural mentoring improves academic engagement

/in , , /by

Hurd, N.M. & Sellers, R.M. (2013). Black adolescents’ relationships with natural mentors: Associations with academic engagement via social and emotional development. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 19 (1), 76-85. summarized by Stella Kanchewa, MA, UMB doctoral student in clinical psychology  Researchers have demonstrated the role that natural mentoring relationships play in affecting youth’s academic […]

Mentoring relationships as a protective factor for pregnant and parenting African-American teenagers

/in /by

Klaw, E., & Rhodes, J. (1995). Mentor relationships and the career development of pregnant and parenting African-American teenagers. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 19, 551-562. Mentoring relationships as a protective factor for pregnant and parenting African-American teenagers Problem: Growing up, African American young women — specifically those who are pregnant or already parenting — disproportionately face a myriad of […]

An evidence-based approach to improving literacy skills through mentoring

/in /by

Miller, S., Connolly, P. & Maguire, L.K. (2011). A Follow-Up Randomised Controlled Trial Evaluation of the Effects of Business in the Community’s Time to Read mentoring programme, Belfast: Centre for  Effective Education, Queen’s University Belfast. Introduction: As a society we are continually concerned about and invested in improving the well-being of youth in order to […]

Gender Matching: An Investigation of Same- versus Cross-gender Matches

/in , /by

Kanchewa, S. S., Rhodes, J. E., Schwartz, S. E. O., & Olsho, L. E. W. (2014). An investigation of same- versus cross-gender matching for boys in formal school-based mentoring programs. Applied Developmental Science, 18(1), 31–45. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888691.2014.876251 Most mentoring programs typically match mentor and mentee by gender. This widespread practice has been supported by theoretical, anecdotal and safety […]

A cautionary result for brief, school-based mentoring programs

/in /by

Summarized by Laura Yoviene McQuillin, S., Smith, B., & Strait, G. (2011). Randomized evaluation of a single semester transitional mentoring program for first year middle school students: a cautionary result for brief, school‐based mentoring. Journal of Community Psychology, 39 (7), 844-859. Background: Evaluations of many youth mentoring programs have repeatedly shown beneficial effects for the […]

The attributes of effective camp counselors: Changing youths’ perspectives of being “cool.”

/in /by

 summarized by Laura Yoviene Taniguchi, S., Widmer, M., & Duerden, M. (2006). The attributes of effective camp counselors: Changing youths’ perspectives of being “cool.” Journal of Experiential Education, 29 (3), 378-381. Problem: Across the country, there are numerous outdoor camp programs that are designed to promote positive outcomes in youth. The majority of the research […]