How Scoring Approaches Impact Estimates of Growth in the Presence of Survey Item Ceiling Effects.

Survey scores are often the basis for understanding how individuals grow psychologically and socio-emotionally. A known problem with many surveys is that the items are all "easy"-that is, individuals tend to use only the top one or two response categories on the Likert scale. Such an issue could be especially problematic, and lead to ceiling effects, when the same survey is administered repeatedly over time. In this study, we conduct simulation and empirical studies to (a) quantify the impact of these ceiling effects on growth estimates when using typical scoring approaches like sum scores and unidimensional item response theory (IRT) models and (b) examine whether approaches to survey design and scoring, including employing various longitudinal multidimensional IRT (MIRT) models, can mitigate any bias in growth estimates. We show that bias is substantial when using typical scoring approaches and that, while lengthening the survey helps somewhat, using a longitudinal MIRT model with plausible values scoring all but alleviates the issue. Results have implications for scoring surveys in growth studies going forward, as well as understanding how Likert item ceiling effects may be contributing to replication failures.

Examining heterogeneity in mentoring: Associations between mentoring discussion topics and youth outcomes.

The current study aims to apply a staged approach to document heterogeneity in discussions in mentoring relationships, chiefly, discussion topics from weekly mentoring sessions with undergraduate women mentors (n = 40), then link each of the eight topics (relationships with friends, family, teachers, and romantic relationships, as well as goals, academic skills, academic problems, and hopes for the future) to developmental outcomes for middle school girls (n = 41) who participated in a school-based mentoring program. In doing so, the authors hope to better understand the mechanisms that influence variability in mentoring treatment effects. Mentoring dyads engaged in unstructured one-on-one sessions and structured group meetings across the 2018-2019 academic year. The primary predictors for this study are weekly mentor-reported discussion topics and activities addressed during unstructured one-on-one mentoring sessions, with 11 social-emotional, academic, and behavioral outcomes measured via pre- and postsurveys administered by research assistants to mentees during the fall and spring. A series of 11 path analyses indicate small to moderate associations, both beneficial and negative, between key discussion topics, such as hopes for the future, family relationships, and goals, and several mentee-reported outcomes of interest at the end of the intervention, including extrinsic motivation, life satisfaction, and self-esteem. Study findings provide information about heterogeneity in mentoring practices to inform how various mechanisms of mentoring (e.g., discussions focused on relationships, goals and skills, and strengths) influence developmentally-relevant effects for youth.

Strategies for monitoring mentoring relationship quality to predict early program dropout.

We examined data from a nationally implemented mentoring program over a 4-year period, to identify demographic and relationship characteristics associated with premature termination. Data were drawn from a sample of 82,224 mentor and mentees. We found matches who reported shared racial or ethnic identities were associated with lower likelihood of premature termination as was mentee's positive feelings of the relationship. We also found that, if data were used as a screening tool, the data were suboptimal for accuracy classifying premature closure with sensitivity and specificity values equal to 0.43 and 0.75. As programs and policymakers consider ways to improve the impact of mentoring programs, these results suggest programs consider the types of data being collected to improve impact of care.

Promoting mentoring relationships through joint decisions: Evidence from a national mentoring program.

School-based mentoring programs are one of the most popular types of prevention programs offered to support students' social-emotional and academic success. Because a high-quality mentoring relationship is thought to be a mechanism for improving youth outcomes, we investigated how mentor- and mentee-relationship quality develops over time. In addition, we examined how relationship development varied as a function of three approaches to selecting mentoring activities (i.e., mentor-directed, program-directed, or jointly determined). We used a random-intercepts crossed-lagged panel model to test how mentor and mentee reports of relationship quality developed over three time points across one school year. Data were gathered from 2014 to 2018 and included 47,699 youth (56% female; 51% Black or Hispanic) who participated in Big Brothers Big Sisters-which provides school-based mentoring services to youth across the U.S. Results indicated that mentors' positive appraisals of the mentoring relationships led to positive appraisals from the mentee at the subsequent time point. In addition, when mentors and mentees jointly determined activities, we found evidence that mentors' and mentees' positive appraisals at one time point led to positive appraisals at the following time point. These results suggest that school-based mentoring programs should consider ways to support joint decision-making among mentors and mentees participating in school-based mentoring programs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).