Posts

Teen Girls Are Faring Worse Than Boys on Nearly All Mental Health Measures—Here’s Why

By Anita Slomski, Reprinted from JAMA Network Child and reproductive psychiatrist Misty Richards, MD, MS, puts it bluntly: “Our teen girls are not okay.” The program director for UCLA’s Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship recently cared for a girl who attempted suicide after receiving a college rejection letter. “Her self-worth was measured in achievement and […]

New study explores the risks for premature match closure in an online mentoring program

Uebler, C., Emmerdinger, K. J., Ziegler, A., & Stoeger, H. (2023). Dropping out of an online mentoring program for girls in STEM: A longitudinal study on the dynamically changing risk for premature match closure. Journal of Community Psychology.  https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.23039 Summarized by Ariel Ervin Notes of Interest: Although mentoring is an efficient approach to promoting youths’ academic, professional, […]

Teen Girls Report Record Levels of Sadness, C.D.C. Finds

  By Azeen Ghorayshi and Roni Caryn Rabin, Reprinted from The New York Times Nearly three in five teenage girls felt persistent sadness in 2021, double the rate of boys, and one in three girls seriously considered attempting suicide, according to data released on Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The findings, […]

[Webinar] International Day of The Girl Panel: How Can Mentoring Elevate Girls and Drive Gender Equity?

Date: Oct 11, 2022 01:00 PM EST Join MENTOR in a discussion about centering & elevating the leadership and the voices of girls & young women. The panelists will share their personal stories about mentoring, as well as provide steps for promoting gender equality in the mentoring movement. To register for the event, please click […]

She gives me a break from the world: Review looks at formal youth mentoring relationships between adolescent girls and adult women

Spencer, R., Liang, B. (2010). “She gives me a break from the world”: Formal youth mentoring relationships between adolescent girls and adult women. J Primary Prevent, 30, 109–130. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10935-009-0172-1 Summarized by Maggie Bayly Notes of Interest: Youth mentees are typically paired with a same-sex adult mentor. For girls, in particular, theories and past programs indicated […]

Youth purpose: The importance of fostering other-oriented aims in parent-child relationships

Lund, T. J., Liang, B., Sepulveda, J., White, A. E., Patel, K., Mousseau, A. M. D., & Spencer, R. (2021). Parenting and youth purpose: Fostering other-oriented aims. Youth, 1(1), 2–13. https://doi.org/10.3390/youth1010002 Summarized by Notes of Interest: The term “youth purpose” refers to goals that are either personally meaningful (self-oriented aims/SO) or benefit someone or something beyond […]

New study highlights the five mentoring competencies (5MCs) in mentor training

Spiekermann, L., Lawrence, E., Lyons, M., & Deutsch, N. (2021). A qualitative analysis of the utility of a competency framework for mentor training. Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning. https://doi.org/10.1080/13611267.2021.1986793 Summarized by Ariel Ervin Notes of Interest: Despite the prevalence of formal mentoring programs, many mentors have trouble establishing and maintaining close and long-lasting relationships with their […]

High-quality relationships with parents can protect high-risk adolescent girls from depressive symptoms

By Karen D. Rudolph and Christy Buchanan, Reprinted from the Society for Research on Adolescence Time spent with peers increases during adolescence compared to childhood, and adolescents are believed to become more susceptible to peer influences and more vulnerable to the stressful peer experience of social exclusion.  As characterized in the movie “Mean Girls,” adolescent […]

Creating a Culturally Relevant Mentoring Program for Girls of Color

By Bernadette Sanchez, Ph.D. Not too long ago, my colleagues and I created a mentoring program, called GirlPOWER!, for African American and Latina early adolescent girls. Our goal was to ensure that the program was gender specific as well as culturally and developmentally appropriate. We created the program in collaboration with Big Brothers Big Sisters […]

New study of female college students highlights the benefits of mentoring

McGill, J., Adler-Baeder, F., Sollie, D.L., & Kerpelman, J.L. (2015). Exploring the experiences of female emerging adult mentors: Building a conceptual model. Journal of Adolescent Research, 30(5), 538-564. Background There has been limited research focused on the experiences of the mentor in the mentor-mentee relationship. However, mentors are likely to receive benefits as well from […]