Applied Developmental Science

Abstract

Cross-age peer mentoring programs, in which teenagers mentor younger children, have proliferated in recent years, yet there is disagreement about the effectiveness of such programs.Prior research suggests that both peer mentors' attitudes and the children's (or mentees') characteristics may moderate program effectiveness. This study tested whether teen mentors' attitudes about children interacts with their mentees' characteristics to moderate outcomes of cross-age peer mentoring. The sample included 221 high school volunteers, 205 mentees, and 182 control group youth. Latent profile analyses yielded two profiles of students who differed on academic performance, social acceptance, and classroom behavior, and which we therefore called academically connected and disconnected types. Outcome analyses revealed that the academically disconnected mentees who were paired with mentors holding relatively positive attitudes toward youth were more emotionally engaged in the mentoring relationship than disconnected mentees with more negative mentors and subsequently reported stronger relationships with their teachers at year's end than did the disconnected children in the control group. Implications for mentor selection and training are discussed.

Historical and Theoretical Bases of Applied Developmental Science

“…As has been argued before us-for example, by Fisher (e.g., Fisher et al, 1993;; Weinberg (e.g., Lerner et al, 1997Lerner et al, , 2000aLerner et al, , 2000b; Sherrod (e.g., 1999aSherrod (e.g., , 1999b; Eccles (Eccles, Lord, & Buchanan, 1996); Takanishi (1993); Lerner (Lerner, 1998b(Lerner, , 2002a(Lerner, , 2002band Wertlieb (2003)-ADS is scholarship predicated on a developmental systems theoretical perspective. Within this context, Fisher et al (1993) summarize the five conceptual components that together characterize the core principles of ADS.…”

“…ADS has its roots in numerous fields concerned with human development, for example, home economics/family and consumer sciences (Meszaros, 2003;Nickols, 2002), human ecology (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 1998), comparative psychology (Tobach, 1994), and developmental psychology (Wertlieb, 2003). Using the latter field as a sample case, we may note that several extensive histories of developmental psychology have been published and most include references to the ebb and flow of interest and priority for what might be termed the applied, practical, or societally oriented issues central to ADS.…”

“…The National Task Force on Applied Developmental Science (Fisher et al, 1993) indicates that the activities of ADS span a continuum from knowledge generation to knowledge application (see also Wertlieb, 2003). These activities include, but are not limited to, the following: research on the applicability of scientific theory to growth and development in natural, ecologically valid contexts; the study of developmental correlates of phenomena of social import; the construction and use of developmentally and contextually sensitive assessment instruments; the design and evaluation of developmental interventions and enhancement programs; and the dissemination of developmental knowledge to individuals, families, communities, practitioners, and policymakers through developmental education, printed and electronic materials, the mass media, expert testimony, and community collaborations.…”

“…In many ways, ADS is "old wine in a new bottle"; that is, significant historical antecedents to the burgeoning field are evident today (Wertlieb, 2003). It is useful here to provide a brief overview of this history, focusing most on the events over the last quarter of a century that have given shape to contemporary ADS.…”

Examining the “Whole Child” to Generate Usable Knowledge

“…When conducting research in the developmental sciences under the constraints of a metatheory that emphasizes the whole person, the separation of individual from context or fractionation of any level within the developmental system from another (e.g., splitting biological from psychological, individual from social) is not tenable. Such splitting results in a fractionation of the “person‐in‐context.” To do research from a point of synthesis and emphasize the human organism as a whole, the relationships among the components of the developing system (e.g., biology, psychology, social relationships, culture, the physical environment) are the appropriate units of analysis (Fisher & Lerner, 1994; Lerner et al, 2003; Wertlieb, 2003). The research literature on child maltreatment offers an example that illustrates the value added when the “person‐in‐context” is the focus and the relationships among the components of the developing system are the unit of analysis rather then simply the component parts therein.…”