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Peer mentoring programs have enormous potential….but there’s a catch

By Jean Rhodes In a recent meta-analysis, my colleagues and I found that the effect size for cross‐age peer mentoring was more than double that observed in previous meta‐analyses of intergenerational mentoring. We concluded that “cross‐age peer mentoring can offer feasible and efficient opportunities to have older peers mentor youth with the potential for mutual […]

Who was your favorite mentor? Survey sheds light on youth’s “most meaningful” mentors

By Jean Rhodes Although many young people have had multiple and even concurrent mentors there is often one mentor who stands out from all the rest. In MENTOR’s impressive recent survey of childhood mentoring experiences (N = 2,639), authors Michael Garringer & Chelsea Benning describe this mentor as “the one that we first think of […]

Case managers’ influence on mentee-mentor match outcomes

Karcher, M. J., Sass, D. A., Herrera, C., DuBois, D. L., Heubach, J., & Grossman, J. B. (2023). Pathways by which case managers’ match support influences youth mentoring outcomes:Testing the systemic model of youth mentoring. Journal of Community Psychology, 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.23010 Summarized by Megyn Jasman Notes of Interest: Match support providers in mentoring programs, such […]

Mentoring and the science of wise interventions

By Jean E Rhodes In recent years, my colleagues and I have been studying the consequences of unequal mentoring opportunities in the U.S. Drawing on large, national data sets, we have found that marginalized students are less likely to report having any kind of mentor and less likely to say that a high school teacher […]

The Mentor: An American reality show

by Jean Rhodes Imagine a reality show in which privileged empty nesters competed to help less fortunate high school students gain entry into the nation’s highest ranked colleges and universities. The many parents who had successfully shepherded their children through the admissions process from the comfort of their homes in Greenwich and Palo Alto would […]

Social-emotional development is critical to prevent youth violence

Malti, T. (2020). Children and Violence: Nurturing Social‐Emotional Development to Promote Mental Health. Social Policy Report, 33(2). https://doi.org/10.1002/sop2.8 Summarized Monica Arkin Notes of interest: While research on violence in children and youth tends to focus on risk factors, this article focuses on protective factors. Positive social-emotional development is a central protective factor that helps children […]

Stuff about oppression

  acknowledge the role of ongoing racial oppression and the barriers to the pursuit of her dreams (CITE). Indeed, mentors are sometimes advised to avoid engaging in discussions about what might be considered difficult or taboo topics, such as money, politics and religion, or class, race, sexual orientation and culture.  Yet avoiding such topics may […]

‘My guidance counselor didn’t do any of this’: How mentors can extend the vital work of school counselors

By Jean Rhodes “When I was in high school, my guidance counselor did not do any of this…I saw my guidance counselor when I was applying for college.” (Jacquelyn Indrisano, ninth grade guidance counselor at East Boston High, quoted in Boston Globe) A Boston Globe article recently described the changing roles of high school guidance […]

Mentored versus not-mentored, what’s the difference?: Group comparisons made easy

By Adar Ben-Eliyahu, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, University of Haifa Are there differences in outcomes between youth who are mentored versus those who are not? What about youth who are in a group mentoring intervention versus those in one-on-one mentoring intervention? Do the mentored youth from single-parent homes benefit more from a particular program than those […]

Grit, John Henryism, and the hidden toll of promoting “character” over social justice

By Joan Brasher-Vanderbilt Past research shows that black college students draw on “grit”—mental toughness and perseverance—to achieve in predominantly white academic institutions. But a new study says that idea fails to recognize an emerging mental health crisis for these students. “Weathering the cumulative effects of living in a society characterized by white dominance and privilege […]