New Mentoring Research

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

Natural Mentors and Education: Complementary or Compensatory Resources?

Summarized by UMass Boston clinical psychology doctoral student Laura Yoviene, MA Erickson, L., McDonald, S., & Elder, G. (2013). Informal mentors and education: Complementary or compensatory resources? Sociology of Education, 82, 344-367. Problem: The majority of research on mentoring has focused on how it can influence  the lives of disadvantaged youths;  whereas very few studies […]

New research identifies program practices as predictors of match longevity

Kupersmidt, J. B., Stump, K. N., Stelter, R. L., & Rhodes, J. E. (2017). Mentoring program practices as predictors of match longevity. Journal of Community Psychology, 1, 1-16. DOI: 10.1002/jcop.21883 Summarized by Justin Preston Introduction Mentoring relationships have long been associated with positive academic, social, emotional, and behavioral outcomes for youth. These positive findings, though, […]

Support in transition: The characteristics of natural mentors for youth in foster care

Duke, T., Farruggia, S. P., & Germo, G. R. (2017). “I don’t know where I would be right now if it wasn’t for them”: Emancipated foster care youth and their important non-parental adults. Children and Youth Services Review, 76, 65-73. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2017.02.015 Summarized by Justin Preston Introduction As of 2015 in the United States, nearly 428,000 […]

Informal mentors increase help-seeking behavior in young male apprentices

  Corney, T., & du Plessis, K. (2016) Apprentices’ mentoring relationships: The role of ‘significant others’ and supportive relationships across the work-life domain. Youth Studies Australia, 29 (3), 18-26. Introduction: The workplace and vocational training setting can be a stressful environment for young men. Due to their own hesitancy to engage in help-seeking behavior, as […]

New research identifies benefits, and cautions, of mentoring organizational youth engagement

Ramey, H. L., Rose-Krasnor, L., & Lawford, H. L. (2017). Youth-adult partnerships and youth identity style. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 46, 442-453. doi: 10.1007/s10964-016-0474-6 Summarized by Justin Preston Introduction Youth-adult partnerships, or collaborations between youth and adults sharing work in order to promote social justice, strengthen organizations, and tackle issues facing their communities, can […]

New research highlights role of STEM making in addressing equity in historically marginalized communities

Calabrese Barton, A., & Tan, E. (2017). FABLEARN 2017 Proceedings. In Proceedings of FABLEARN Conference 2017, Stanford, USA, 4 pages. https://doi.org/0000001.0000001 Summarized by Justin Preston Introduction Inequality and underrepresentation of youth from historically marginalized communities have been stubbornly persistent in STEM fields. However, with the advent of maker spaces, and the associated maker movement, there […]

New research highlights importance of mentor expectations in sustaining relationships

Spencer, R., Drew, A. L., & Kanchewa, S. S. (2017). Girls (and boys) just want to have fun: A mixed-methods examination of the role of gender in youth mentoring relationship duration and quality. Journal of Primary Prevention. doi: 10.1007/s10935-017-0494-3 Summarized by Justin Preston Background The findings from the literature on youth mentoring have shed light […]

Smoothing bumps in the road: Research uses attachment theory to improve mentoring practice

Zilberstein, K. & Spencer, R. (2017). Breaking bad: An attachment perspective on youth mentoring relationship closures. Child & Family Social Work, 22(1), 67-76. doi:10.1111/cfs.12197 Summarized by Justin Preston   In a recent republication, the journal Child & Family Social Work highlighted an article with some useful lessons for mentoring programs looking to find ways of […]

It takes two: New research investigates reciprocity in the teacher-student mentoring relationship

Ferguson, S. (2017). Ask not what your mentor can do for you…: The role of reciprocal exchange in maintaining student-teacher mentorships. Sociological Forum, 1-23. DOI: 10.1111/socf.12406. Summarized by Justin Preston   Introduction In the present study, the author seeks to underscore a framework for relational processes that make social capital, or the goodwill available to […]

New research outlines 9 steps in using mentoring to boost physical activity in youth

Smith, L. & Petosa, R. (2016). A structured peer-mentoring method for physical activity behavior change among adolescents. The Journal of the School of Nursing, 32(5), 315-323. Summarized by Justin Preston As the winter months roll in, a time typically reserved for hibernating and reduced physical activity more generally, new research has outlined an approach for […]