Posts

An attachment perspective on incarcerated parents and their children

Cassidy, J., Poehlmann, J., & Shaver, P. (2010). An attachment perspective on incarcerated parents and their children. Attachment & Human Development, 12(4), 285-288. Problem: It is estimated that over 3 million children are affected by having an incarcerated parent (Glaze & Maruschak, 2008; Western & Wildeman, 2009). One particular way in which children are negatively […]

What can we learn from research on camp counselors?: The role of personality

Loveland, J. M., Gibson, L. W., Lounsbury, J. W., & Huffstetler, B. C. (2005). Broad and narrow personality traits in relation to the job performance of camp counselors. Child and Youth Care Forum, 34(3), 241-255. Background The authors sought to test whether personality traits could be linked to performance ratings of youth camp counselors. Assessment […]

Mentoring and social skills training: Ensuring better outcomes for youth in foster care.

Williams, C. Mentoring and social skills training: Ensuring better outcomes for youth in foster care. Child Welfare, 90 (1), 59-74. Background: Approximately 500,000 youth in the United States are in the foster care system, of those youth, 50-75%  experience either behavioral or social-emotional problems as well as being at risk for a myriad of other […]

POLL: What new mentoring research do you think would be most beneficial?

The research base around youth mentoring has grown considerably over the last decade and it seems that every few months a new report or resource comes along that improves our understanding of how to deliver mentoring services and what they can achieve. Already this year we have the valuable insights from the Role of Risk […]

On Methods: What are mediation and moderation?

    By Adar Ben-Eliyahu One of the burning questions for practitioners, researchers, and policy makers is – how does mentoring work? We have all seen that mentoring is correlated with good outcomes, but correlation does not explain what leads to those outcomes, why or how. A correlation can tell us if the relations are positive, […]

Adolescents’ development of skills for agency in youth programs

Larson, R., & Angus, R. (2011). Adolescents’ development of skills for agency in youth programs: Learning to think strategically. Child Development, 82 (1), 277-294. Problem: An objective of many youth programs often focus on  the development of agency skills, referring to “cognitive tools, including insights, precepts, knowledge, and action schemas that youth might employ to […]

The effects of parent, teacher, and peer support on school engagement

Column Editor Renee Spencer’s Note: Recent scholarship is drawing attention to the link between mentoring and the long-standing and rich literature on social support. For example, Sterrett and colleagues (2011) argue that social support theory can offer a guiding framework for continued research on supportive non-parental adults and the role they play in promoting positive […]

Instrumental relationships: A potential relational model for inner-city youth programs.

Halpern, R. (2005). Instrumental relationships: A potential relational model for inner-city youth programs. Journal of Community Psychology, 33 (1), 11-20. Problem: Many inner city youth face heightened psychological and situational barriers affecting their ability to take advantage to specific opportunities that are afforded to them. Youth programs  are faced with the challenge of how to […]

Mentors’ Corner: How does mentoring “work,” and under what conditions does it work best?

Editors Note: In this column Gail Manza and Susan Patrick draw from their new book Mentor’s Field Guide, which is framed as a series of 67 answers to the most common questions that arise in youth mentoring.  Question 6. How does mentoring “work,” and under what conditions does it work best? Based on the seminal research of […]

Policy Corner: How Amachi serves the needs of children of incarcerated parents

Policy Corner: How Amachi serves the needs of children of incarcerated parents by. W. Wilson Goode Sr. About 10.7 million U.S. children ages eighteen and under have at least one parent who is under some form of supervision by the criminal justice system.  More than 1.7 million of these children have a parent who is […]