How mentors help youth put their connections to work
Boat, A. A., Van Steenis, E., Stout, G. A., & Hsieh, T.-Y. (2026). Fostering connections: How mentoring relationships can promote youth social capital. Journal of Community Psychology, 54(8), e70159. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.70159
Summarized by Emily Buss
About the Study
Social capital, or the resources that flow through young people’s relationships, can open doors to jobs, internships, college, and other opportunities. Mentors are often described as a source of social capital in their own right. However, any one mentor’s network can only go so far, and researchers have argued that one of the most useful things a mentor can do is help a young person build new connections and strengthen the relationships they already have (what the authors call connection-building support). Despite growing interest in this idea, little is known about how mentors actually provide this kind of support or whether it makes a difference for youth.
This mixed-methods study examined whether connection-building support is linked to network mobilization (the extent to which youth reach out to people in their networks for help in pursuing their goals) and whether network mobilization, in turn, is tied to progress toward life goals and occupational identity (a young person’s sense of the kind of work they want to do). The researchers surveyed 122 youth ages 13 to 18 (88% youth of color and 57% female) and used a path model to test these links. They also interviewed 12 mentor-mentee pairs to better understand how mentors support youth social capital in practice.
Key Findings
Goals and occupational identity. Connection-building support was indirectly associated with greater progress toward life goals and a stronger occupational identity. These associations ran through network mobilization. In other words, mentors’ efforts to help youth build and strengthen relationships were linked to better outcomes by way of youth actually drawing on those relationships.
What mentors do. The interviews with mentor-mentee pairs added nuance to the survey results by describing the specific actions mentors took to support their mentees’ social capital. Together, the 2 sources of data offer a fuller picture of connection building than either could alone.
“Little is known about how mentors support mentees in strengthening social capital.” (Boat et al., 2026, Abstract)
Implications for Mentoring
These findings suggest that helping youth build and use their own networks is a concrete way mentors can support social capital. Programs might consider training mentors to treat connection building as a regular part of the relationship, for example by helping mentees identify people who could support their goals, preparing them to reach out, and checking in afterward. Because the associations ran through network mobilization, mentors may also want to pay attention to whether youth follow through on contacting the people they have identified.
It is worth keeping in mind that the quantitative findings come from a path model with 122 youth, so they describe associations and cannot establish that connection-building support caused these outcomes. Larger and longitudinal studies would help clarify how connection building unfolds over time and which mentor actions matter most for which youth.
