Tag Archive for: Termination

Improving Mentoring by Improving Mentor Training

By Sam McQuillin Originally posted the National Mentoring Resource Center Blog In 1964, the famed American psychologist B.F. Skinner predicted how education might change by 1984. Reflecting on the precedent for this prediction, he wrote “Improving education seldom takes the form of improving teaching.” I was confused the first time that I read this quote. What he […]

Profiles in Mentoring: Rich Greif of BBBS Massachusetts Bay on match support, tech in mentoring, and more

Written by Maaike Kroes and Iris Kools Rich Greif is the vice president of Marketing, Communications and Community Relations of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Massachusetts Bay (BBBSMB). He oversees all the volunteer and youth recruitment, as well as all the marketing and branding for the agency. Rich first got involved with mentoring when he […]

Leaving So Soon? Researchers Investigate Why Mentoring Matches End Early

Mentoring relationship closures in Big Brothers Big Sisters community mentoring programs: Patterns and associated risk factors. DeWit, D., DuBois, D., Erdem, G., Larose, S., Lipman, E., & Spencer, R. (2016). American Journal of Community Psychology, 0, 1-13. DOI: 10.1002/ajcp.12023. Summarized by Justin Preston   Introduction While previous research has demonstrated the overall positive benefits associated with […]

What Predicts Volunteers’ Commitment to Mentoring Relationships? You guessed it…

Madia, B.P., & Lutz, C.J. (2004). Perceived similarity, expectation-reality discrepancies, and mentors’ expressed intention to remain in Big Brothers/Big Sisters programs. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 34 (3), 598-623. Mentor initiated premature terminations compromise mentoring programs’ goal of fostering quality relationships between youth and nonparental adults. Moreover, for youth from potentially vulnerable backgrounds, the premature […]

Profiles in mentoring: Professor Sarah Schwartz

Six Questions with Sarah Schwartz: Youth-Initiated Mentoring and the Connected Scholars Program By Justin Preston   Mentoring programs across the country are often faced with two interconnected, stubborn issues: The shortage of available mentors for young people hoping to be matched with an adult and the high rates of mentor drop out. The former issue […]

New research identifies mentoring strategies for at-risk youth

Wesely, J. K., Dzoba, N. P., Miller, H. V., & Rasche, C. E. (2017). Mentoring at-risk youth: An examination of strain and mentor response strategies. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 42, 198-217. doi: 10.1007/s12103-016-9353-7 Summarized by Justin Preston Editor’s Note: This research touches on a crucial aspect of the mentoring relationship: the relational skills needed […]

How Formal Mentoring Programs Can Facilitate Natural Mentoring Relationships

by Sarah Schwartz  I recently had the privilege of being part of a conversation organized by the Mentoring Partnership of Southwestern Pennsylvania on what mentoring programs can do to facilitate natural mentoring relationships. The conversation was prompted in part by  findings that emerged from  the new Mentoring Effect report, stating that youth are more likely […]

A conversation with Professor Nancy Deutsch

Editors note: Several of the studies we’ve highlighted in the Chronicle have been conducted (or influenced) by the work of Nancy Deutsch, an Associate Professor in the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia. She is also affiliated with Youth-Nex, the U.Va. Center to Promote Effective Youth Development. Professor Deutsch’s research is focused on […]

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 […]

Ending mentoring relationships: Important lessons from child psychotherapy

by Jean Rhodes Research on early terminations in therapy, including the specific behaviors and attitudes that increase their likelihood, is relevant to mentoring relationships. Nearly half of all therapeutic ties terminate prematurely, owing to a variety of factors. Sometimes parents or spouses sabotage the process; sometimes clients reenact earlier, dysfunctional behaviors; and sometimes clients are dissatisfied […]