Mentor Response to Youth Academic Support–Seeking Behavior

Abstract

Mentoring-based interventions for adolescent offenders are promising strategies for reducing the likelihood of academic underachievement, truancy, and school dropout. Program effectiveness, however, varies widely. Investigation into factors that strengthen the impact of mentoring on academic-related outcomes is warranted. One factor might be academic attunement, or the degree to which a mentor's emphasis on academics is consistent with youth's academic support-seeking behavior and desire for academic help. This within-group study examined the relationship between mentor attunement and academic outcomes among youth (N=204; ages 11-18; 54.5% male) who participated in a time-limited mentoring program. Latent profile analysis identified three distinct groups: attuned mentors, over-focused mentors, and under-focused mentors. In general, youth with attuned mentors reported better post-intervention scores as compared to youth with misattuned (i.e., over-focused or under-focused) mentors on perception of school usefulness and importance, academic self-efficacy, and truancy, but not grade point average. Findings suggest the importance of monitoring academic attunement.

Unpacking Community-Based Youth Mentoring Relationships: An Integrative Review

“…Mentees’ perceptions of support and help from their mentors, happiness, and mentor satisfaction were positively associated with the mentees’ academic outcomes (e.g., liking school, scholastic efficacy, grades, education plans), social outcomes (e.g., social acceptance, parental trust, social support from parents, siblings, and other adults), and emotional outcomes (e.g., hope) in BBBS in Ireland [ 61 ]. Mentees with attuned mentors (i.e., exhibiting an ongoing capacity to identify and flexibly meet mentees’ needs; [ 62 ], who participated in a 12-week time-limited mentoring program, reported greater value for school, academic self-efficacy, and truancy, as compared with mentees with poorly attuned mentors [ 63 ]. Perceived mentors’ help and mentees’ dissatisfaction, the latter feeling hurt and betrayed, accounted for poor mentee outcomes in BBBS [ 18 ].…”

A mixed‐methods approach to understanding trajectories of mentoring relationship growth

“…Researchers have found that mentor behavior that is consistent with Positive Youth Development Theory (PYD), which views youth as assets in possession of unique strengths to be developed, leads to the higher quality relationships (Lerner et al, 2013). These relationships mentors are collaborative, attuned to the mentee's needs, and share a purpose (Karcher et al, 2010; Pryce, 2012; Weiler et al, 2017). Highly effective mentors view their mentees as equal team members and work with their mentee rather than adopting a hierarchical approach to the relationship (Pryce, 2012).…”

Mentors' experiences of mentoring justice‐involved adolescents: A narrative of developing cultural consciousness through connection

“…Through the mentoring relationship, mentors provide support to a youth's social and emotional functioning, strengthening cognitive abilities, and fostering positive identity formation (Rhodes, Spencer, Keller, Liang, & Noam, 2006). Although not all mentoring programs achieve the anticipated positive outcomes (Drake & Barnowski, 2006), those that do may reflect the ability of mentors to establish strong long-term prosocial bonds with adolescents (DeWitt, DuBois, Erdem, Larose, & Lipman, 2016) and be attentive to adolescent's support seeking behaviors (Weiler, Chesmore, Pryce, Haddock, & Rhodes, 2019). In one study of mentor characteristics associated with success, there was an interdependent connection between relationship quality and youths' outcomes (Silverstein, 2012).…”