New Mentoring Research

A survey of the latest peer-reviewed research on youth mentoring.

New study on benefits of peer mentoring in chronic care

Williams, E. M., Hyer, J. M., Viswanathan, R., Faith, T. D., Voronca, D., Gebregzaibher, M., … & Egede, L. (2018). Peer‐to‐Peer Mentoring for African American Women With Lupus: A Feasibility Pilot. Arthritis care & research, 70(6), 908-917. doi:10.1002/acr.23412 Summarized by Rachel Thompson Notes of Interest: Overall, this study demonstrates that peers can be instrumental in promoting self-management […]

The impact of a community mentorship program on youth with risks for suicidal behaviors

King, C. A., Gipson, P. Y., Arango, A., Foster, C. E., Clark, M., Ghaziuddin, N., & Stone, D. (2018). LET’s CONNECT community mentorship program for youths with peer social problems: Preliminary findings from a randomized effectiveness trial. Journal of Community Psychology, 46(7), 885-902. doi:10.1002/jcop.21979 Summarized by Rachel Thompson Notes of Interest: LET’s CONNECT aims to […]

How natural mentoring improves academic engagement

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

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 […]

New research on how youth-initiated mentoring can possibly redress problems faced by many mentoring programs.

Spencer, R., Gowdy, G., Drew, A. L., & Rhodes, J. E. (2018). “Who Knows Me the Best and Can Encourage Me the Most?”: Matching and Early Relationship Development in Youth-Initiated Mentoring Relationships with System-Involved Youth. Journal of Adolescent Research. doi:10.1177/0743558418755686 Summarized by Rachel Thompson Notes of Interest: This exploratory qualitative study showed that the YIM approach […]

An evidence-based approach to improving literacy skills through mentoring

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 […]

New research shows mentor-youth similarities to have impact on mentoring match duration

Raposa, E. B., Ben‐Eliyahu, A., Olsho, L. E., & Rhodes, J. (2018). Birds of a feather: Is matching based on shared interests and characteristics associated with longer youth mentoring relationships?. Journal of Community Psychology. doi:10.1002/jcop.22127 Summarized by Cyanea Poon & Rachel Thompson Notes of Interest: The current study sought to expand on findings from previous studies, exploring […]

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

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 […]

New research looks at media-based peer support in grad school

McLaughlin, Christopher and Sillence, Elizabeth (2018) Buffering against academic loneliness: The benefits of social media-based peer support during postgraduate study. Active Learning in Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469787418799185 Summarized by Cyanea Poon Notes of Interest: This qualitative study examined how postgraduate students can benefit from supportive peer network through social media platforms. This article concluded with some […]

News Alert: A cautionary result for brief, school-based mentoring programs - The Chronicle of Evidence-Based Mentoring

A cautionary result for brief, school-based mentoring programs

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 […]