"I really wanted her to have a Big Sister": Caregiver perspectives on mentoring for early adolescent girls.

Formal youth mentoring programs tend to focus on the mentor-mentee dyad as the primary relationship cultivated and supported. The interests and preferences of the parent or caregiver in the mentoring relationship may receive little attention. In this study, semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with primary caregivers (N=20) of early adolescent girls participating in a Big Brothers Big Sisters community-based mentoring program to explore reasons why they wanted mentors for their daughters. Thematic analysis revealed that caregivers expected mentors to support their daughters as trusted companions, confidants, and conduits to opportunities and services. In addition, caregivers noted ways in which mentoring offered them respite and reinforced their parenting. The findings highlight the potential value of assessing caregiver perspectives and priorities so that program staff and mentors can partner more effectively with youth and families for successful mentoring experiences.

Therapeutic mentoring: reducing the impact of trauma for foster youth.

This study utilized secondary data analysis to examine therapeutic mentoring (TM) as a service intervention in helping to reduce trauma symptoms in foster youth. Outcomes were compared for mentored (n = 106) and non-mentored (n = 156) foster youth related to experience and symptoms of trauma. Results showed that mentored youth improved significantly in the reduction of trauma symptoms relative to non-mentored youth, suggesting that TM shows promise as an important treatment intervention for foster youth with trauma experiences.

Different roles and different results: how activity orientations correspond to relationship quality and student outcomes in school-based mentoring.

This prospective, mixed-methods study investigated how the nature of joint activities between volunteer mentors and student mentees corresponded to relationship quality and youth outcomes. Focusing on relationships in school-based mentoring programs in low-income urban elementary schools, data were obtained through pre-post assessments, naturalistic observations, and in-depth interviews with mentors and mentees. Adopting an exploratory approach, the study employed qualitative case study methods to inductively identify distinctive patterns reflecting the focus of mentoring activities. The activity orientations of relationships were categorized according to the primary functional role embodied by the mentor and the general theme of interactions: teaching assistant/tutoring, friend/engaging, sage/counseling, acquaintance/floundering. Next, these categories were corroborated by comparing the groups on quantitative assessments of relationship quality and change in child outcomes over time. Relationships characterized by sage mentoring, which balanced amicable engagement with adult guidance, were rated most favorably by mentees on multiple measures of relationship quality. Furthermore, students involved in sage mentoring relationships showed declines in depressive symptoms and aggressive behaviors. For disconnected pairs (acquaintances), students reported more negative relationship experiences. Findings suggest effective mentoring relationships represent a hybrid between the friendly mutuality of horizontal relationships and the differential influence of vertical relationships.

The role of therapeutic mentoring in enhancing outcomes for youth in foster care.

Effective service interventions greatly enhance the well-being of foster youth. A study of 262 foster youth examined one such intervention, therapeutic mentoring. Results showed that mentored youth improved significantly in the areas of family and social functioning, school behavior, and recreational activities, as well as in the reduction of expressed symptoms of traumatic stress. Study results suggest that therapeutic mentoring shows promise for enhancing treatment interventions.

Mutual but unequal: mentoring as a hybrid of familiar relationship roles.

This chapter employs a conceptual framework based on the relationship constructs of power and permanence to distinguish the special hybrid nature of mentoring relationships relative to prototypical vertical and horizontal relationships common in the lives of mentor and mentee. The authors note that mentoring occurs in voluntary relationships among partners with unequal social experience and influence. Consequently, mentoring relationships contain expectations of unequal contributions and responsibilities (as in vertical relationships), but sustaining the relationships depends on mutual feelings of satisfaction and commitment (as in horizontal relationships). Keller and Pryce apply this framework to reveal the consistency of findings across several qualitative studies reporting particular interpersonal patterns in youth mentoring relationships. On a practical level, they suggest that the mentor needs to balance the fun, interest, and engagement that maintain the relationship with the experienced guidance, structure, and support that promote the growth and well-being of the mentee.

GirlPOWER! Strengthening mentoring relationships through a structured, gender-specific program.

The authors examine GirlPOWER! an innovative program that uses structure and group-based activities to enhance one-to-one mentoring relationships for young adolescent girls from the perspective of the focus, purpose, and authorship dimensions of mentoring relationships that Karcher and Nakkula described. The discussion draws on several sources of data that contributed to the development and ongoing refinement of the program. The authors highlight their efforts to design the program in a way that navigates the tensions they encountered in balancing attention to competing concerns associated with each dimension. Based on their analysis, they conclude that what may appear to be competing areas of emphasis in mentoring relationships, such as a focus on goals or relationship development, may in practice often prove to be mutually reinforcing and thus synergistic. Their experience underscores a need to complement program enhancements such as GirlPOWER! with individualized support that is geared to the unique backgrounds of mentors and the distinctive features of each mentoring relationship.