Can E-Mentoring Reach Struggling Families? New Findings Say It Already Does

Introduction

Youth mentoring organizations increasingly deliver services through digital platforms, hoping to reach teens who might not otherwise connect with an adult mentor. Adolescents may also feel more comfortable discussing sensitive topics like substance use through a screen than face-to-face. Yet parents remain the gatekeepers of these programs, and almost nothing is known about how comfortable parents actually are with their teens meeting a mentor online, particularly to discuss something as fraught as substance use or violence. This gap matters most for Black youth, who research shows are less likely than White peers to report having a supportive non-parental adult in their life. Black teens also report higher rates of near-constant internet use and smartphone access than White or Hispanic teens, technology habits that would seem well-suited to e-mentoring. Given this fit, combined with uncertainty about how Black parents specifically feel about placing their children in an online mentoring relationship, researchers Kaufman and colleagues (2026) set out to examine parental comfort directly, as part of a broader project developing an e-mentoring app aimed at substance use prevention for Black youth in urban areas.

Methods

The team surveyed 307 parents of children ages 10 to 17 across eight U.S. cities with large Black populations, recruited through Qualtrics Research Panels. Parents reported demographics, social media habits, existing mentoring experience, comfort discussing various topics with an online mentor, their child’s behavioral health, and worries about substance use. Researchers used chi-square tests, t-tests, and logistic regression to compare parents comfortable versus uncomfortable with e-mentoring.

Results

66% of parents were comfortable connecting their child with an online mentor. Comfort was significantly higher among male parents (77% vs. 58% of mothers), White parents (84% vs. 63% of Black parents), and more educated parents (83% with graduate degrees vs. 56% with high school or less). Comfort also rose sharply among parents already familiar with social media and parents who suspected their child was using substances (AOR = 2.90) or showed poor behavioral health (AOR = 2.22). Notably, concern about aggression, not substance use itself, was the strongest predictor (AOR = 6.13). Ultimately, most urban parents are open to online mentoring. That openness is often highest among the very families facing the greatest need. Still, persistent gaps by race, gender, and education mean a significant share of parents, disproportionately Black mothers with less formal education, remain hesitant.

Discussion

The authors interpret the gender finding cautiously, noting it runs counter to some general research suggesting women trust social media more than men do. They suggest mothers’ typically greater day-to-day involvement in monitoring their children’s internet use may make them more attuned to, and wary of, additional screen-based relationships, rather than reflecting broader distrust of technology itself. The racial gap in comfort, meanwhile, sits within a genuinely mixed evidence base. Some studies find Black communities express more skepticism toward mobile health technologies, while others find no such gap once access to devices is accounted for. The authors suggest this contradiction points to access and trust operating somewhat independently, meaning technology adoption alone won’t necessarily resolve comfort gaps rooted in mistrust or unfamiliarity with a specific program. The finding that worried parents were more comfortable, rather than more resistant, aligns with a simple logic: for a parent already unsure how to talk with their teen about substance use or aggression, a trained outside mentor may look less like a risk and more like a resource.

Implications for Mentoring Programs

Programs should not assume that concerned parents need to be persuaded that e-mentoring is safe, many already see it as an opportunity. Instead, outreach should focus on parents least engaged with technology themselves, and particularly on Black mothers with lower levels of formal education, who showed the lowest comfort levels in this sample. Concrete steps could include transparent explanations of mentor supervision and vetting, testimonials from parents who’ve seen e-mentoring help with substance use or behavioral concerns, and hybrid models pairing virtual and in-person contact where feasible.

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