Entries by Jean Rhodes

Giving support can improve mentors’ brain functioning

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Giving support to others has unique positive effects on brain health, a new study finds. It changes key brain areas related to stress and reward, scientists have found. Those who regularly give support to others may have a reduced response to stress and be more sensitive to rewards. People in the study were asked about […]

New study explores mentor relationship beginnings

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DeWitt, D. J., Lipman, E. L., Da Costa, J., Graham, K., Larose, S., Pepler, D., Coyle, J., DuBois, D., Manzano-Munguia, M, & Ferro, A. (2016). Predictors of early versus late match relationship beginnings in Big Brothers Big Sisters community programs. Children and Youth Services Review. doi: Summarized by Jessica Cunningham, B.A., Research Associate, Center for Evidence-Based Mentoring Background: […]

Why Public Schools Should Reinvent Mentorship

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by Daniel Lombrosco (WATCH VIDEO) Jessica Valoris is a “dream director,” a new take on the guidance counselor role that combines mentorship, life coaching, and artistic training. Jessica’s job is difficult: Only 22 percent of students at Roosevelt High School are at grade level and many are on the verge of dropping out. “I’m creating […]

The Importance of High-School Mentors

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by Alyza Sebenius (the Atlantic) In her job as a “dream director,” Jessica Valoris is tasked with unleashing the potential of disadvantaged students at an inner-city high school in Washington, D.C. Her employer, a New York-based nonprofit called The Future Project, embeds mentors like Valoris in public schools, characterizing her role as a “midwife of […]

Teens in military families: Two scholars explain the complexities

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By Mallory Lucier Greer–Submitted by Amy Glaspie on Wed, 02/10/2016 – 10:33  Mallory Lucier-Greer, PhD, LMFT Assistant Professor Department of Family and Child Sciences, Florida State University Jay A. Mancini, PhD  Haltiwanger Distinguished Professor Department of Human Development and Family Science, The University of Georgia Question: What do you get when you combine a seasoned […]

New study show that kids who live with half or step-siblings are more aggressive

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Posted by Diane Swanbrow-Michigan on February 8, 2016 About one in six children in the United States—more than previously thought—live with half- or step-siblings just before starting kindergarten. And new research suggests these children behave more aggressively more often, on average, than other children do. Previous studies on how family complexity affects children’s development have […]

Interested in aligning with the new EEPM? Participate in a study!

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Are you involved in developing and supervising your mentoring program’s practices? Do you want to improve your practices? Quality Improvement activities focus on how well mentoring programs are implementing the standards and best practices of the field, such as those included within the Elements of Effective Practice for Mentoring (EEPM) published by MENTOR/National Mentoring Partnership. […]

Can you trust the latest findings? It depends….

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by Jean Rhodes In a recent review of meta-analyses, researchers Alan Cheung and Robert Slavin found that certain types of evaluations yielded larger effect sizes than others. Larger effects emerged in studies where the researchers created their own questionnaires, instead of relying on well-validated questionnaires. Homegrown questionnaires might include items that are very specific to the knowledge and […]

New study suggests that disadvantaged youth gain the most from mentoring

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Thompson, R.B., Corsello, M., McReynolds, S., & Conklin-Powers, B. (2013). A longitudinal study of family socioeconomic status (SES) variables as predictors of socio-emotional resilience among mentored youth. Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning, 21 (4), 378-391. DOI: 10.1080/13611267.2013.855864. Reviewed by Stella Kanchewa, doctoral candidate in clinical psychology, UMass Boston Problem: Many mentoring programs focus on […]

What’s the difference between dependent and independent variables?

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by Adar Ben-Eliyahu Independent Variables Independent variables are the characteristics that we think predict the outcomes of interest. In mentoring research, we might think that such factors as the mentors’ age, the youth gender, the quality of the relationship, and the programs’ level of supervision would predict better youth outcomes. In this case, those factors […]