How Connectedness Contributes to Experimental Smoking Among Rural Youth: Developmental and Ecological Analyses

The Study of Mentoring in the Learning Environment (SMILE): A Randomized Evaluation of the Effectiveness of School-based Mentoring

“…These dubious main effects are qualified by more clearly positive effects on social skills, hopefulness, and connectedness for elementary school male mentees. Prior research has shown connectedness to culturally different peers and to school to correlate positively with academic engagement and other prosocial activities that are condoned by adults (Battistich et al 2004;Henrich et al 2005;Karcher 2003;Karcher and Finn 2005;Thomas and Smith 2004). The two social skills on which elementary male mentees improvedempathy and cooperation-and the Hope scale also have been shown to predict academic engagement and improved interpersonal relationships (Elliott et al 1988;Shorey et al 2003;Stuart et al 1991).…”

“…Recent research suggests peer-referenced selfesteem can be predictive of increased problem behaviors (DuBois et al 2002a). Similarly, research conducted with the Connectedness to Peers and Self-in-the-Present scales, on which the mentees improved the most, has found they cluster with factors that predict risk-taking and disengagement from school (Karcher 2003(Karcher , 2004Karcher and Finn 2005). In fact, the absence of a main effect on the more conventional Connectedness to School, Self-in-the-Future, and Mattering scales or on grades suggests that the changes in self-esteem associated with having a mentor were not related to academic engagement or future-oriented thinking.…”

Review of What Youth Programs Do to Increase the Connectedness of Youth with Adults

“…Adult-connectedness has also been found to be a significant negative predictor of experimental smoking among adolescents, although not as strong as the positive peer effect [15]. Atkins et al [16] specifically studied the effect of nonparental role models and found that youth reporting such relationships were twice as likely not to report tobacco use.…”

Connectedness Among Chilean Adolescents: Factor Analysis of the Hemingway Measure of Adolescent Connectedness

“…Resnick et al (1997) found parent/family connectedness and school connectedness to be protective factors for adolescents of the Unites States in relation to their engagement in violence, substance use, sexual behavior, and emotional health. Karcher and Finn (2005) found that connectedness to parents decreased the likelihood of experimental smoking in rural adolescents. The pattern of correlations found in this investigation, in conjunction with existing literature on Chilean youth (e.g., Florenzano, 2002;Martinez et al, 2006;Santander et al, 2008), suggest that connectedness to family may be a strong protective factor in Chile and, as such, may be an important focus of prevention and intervention efforts.…”

“…While the evidence supports the importance of connectedness for adolescents, and its potential as a target of prevention efforts (e.g., Karcher & Finn, 2005), the construct of connectedness has not been validated in many cultural and national contexts. One measure of youth connectedness, the Hemingway Measure of Adolescent Connectedness (Hemingway), has a number of benefits including its attention to multiple dimensions of connectedness.…”