by Jean Rhodes In 1979, a young assistant professor named Joe Durlak published a controversial study in Psychological Bulletin that sent ripples through the field of clinical psychology and provided momentum for what eventually became the mentoring movement. What he sought to do was combine all of the published studies that had compared the outcomes of […]
by Jean Rhodes As the parent of a high school junior, I can’t help but worry about the impending college application process. I try to appear relaxed and good natured during the occasional moments that my son checks in with me, yet my mind is racing. “Yeah,” I casually agree, “Bradley Cooper really should win best actor.” […]
by Jean Rhodes Ron Haskins, the co-director of the Center on Children and Families at the Brookings Institution recently wrote a New York Times OpEd in which he made a strong case for the use of evaluation and evidence in social programs. As he notes, “Despite decades of efforts and trillions of dollars in spending, rigorous evaluations typically find […]
by Jean Rhodes In their new book, “Mistakes Were Made, But Not by Me,” Carol Travis and Elliot Aronson discuss our how confirmatory biases predispose us toward confirming our preconceptions. In the absence of rigorous, experimental studies, we can easily summon up “evidence” that supports our viewpoints while ignoring contradictory information. This has relevance for mentoring […]
Rhodes, J., Schwartz, S., & Wu, M. (2014) Validating a Mentoring Relationship Quality Scale: Does Match Strength Predict Match Length. Youth & Society. 1-14 by Jean Rhodes Remarkably few studies have focused on mentors’ experiences in relationships. To address this gap, my colleagues and I designed and validated a mentor-reported measure of relationship quality. The result is a new […]
In “The Heart Grows Smarter,” David Brooks discussed the importance of caring relationships, and cited the classic work of George Vaillant who followed a cohort of Harvard men for many years. As Brooks notes, “It’s not that the men who flourished had perfect childhoods. Rather, as Vaillant puts it, “What goes right is more important […]
A volunteer mentor from Odessa, Texas was arrested in July for inappropriate sexual contact with his 15-year-old mentee. What started as a flirtatious text quickly moved to alleged nude photographs and assault. The sad fact is that pedophiles sometimes look to youth-serving organizations as a source of victims. Yet three years after the Jerry Sandusky case brought […]
by Phillip Levine, Ph.D. I am grateful for the attention that my analysis has received and I believe there is more common ground here than one might otherwise gauge based on this critique (see below). Much of the critique is focused on the scope and nature of the evidence. My analysis was clear in restricting […]
by Jean Rhodes Nearly 80 years after its publication, Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People remains one of the best-selling books of all time (30 million copies!). This led me to wonder whether some of the interpersonal skills that Carnegie highlights might be helpful to the millions of mentors working with today’s youth? The answer is […]
A recent study, conducted by Katherine Milkman and her colleagues, highlights the barriers that women and students of colors face as they try to succeed in school and build their careers. As detailed in the NYTimes article below, the researchers sent over 6,000 emails to professors at elite institutions, asking for the opportunity to be […]
MentorPROFebruary 21, 2023 - MentorPRO is a leading digital tool platform to support educators to build developmental relationships with their students in easy and fun ways.
AlongMarch 30, 2022 - In support of our continued conversation on how to support today’s youth, this issue of the Chronicle of Evidence-Based Mentoring is proudly sponsored by Along, a free digital tool designed to support educators to build developmental relationships with their students in easy and fun ways.
MENTOR: The National Mentoring PartnershipNovember 12, 2014 - MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership (MENTOR) is the unifying champion for expanding quality youth mentoring relationships in the United States. For nearly 25 years, MENTOR has served the mentoring field by providing a public voice, developing and delivering resources to mentoring programs nationwide and promoting quality for mentoring through standards, cutting-edge research and state of the art tools.
Academic Web PagesAugust 6, 2012 - Academic Web Pages is the leading provider of customized websites for researchers, centers, nonprofits, and universities. AWP designed and has contributed generously to the creation of the Chronicle of Evidence-Based Mentoring.
