Youth mentoring relationships in context: Mentor perceptions of youth, environment, and the mentor role

Abstract

Youth mentoring is primarily understood as a relationship between mentor and mentee, yet mentors often enter into home, school, and other community settings associated with youth they serve, and interact regularly with other people in mentees’ lives. Understanding how and why mentors negotiate their role as they do remains underexplored, especially in relation to these environmental elements. This qualitative study drew on structured interviews conducted with professional mentors (N = 9) serving youth at risk for adjustment problems to examine how mentors’ perceptions of their mentees and mentee environments informed their sense of how they fulfilled the mentoring role. Mentors commonly characterized problems youth displayed as byproducts of adverse environments, and individual-level strengths as existing “in spite of” environmental inputs. Perceptions of mentees and their environments informed mentors’ role conceptualizations, with some mentors seeing themselves as antidotes to environmental adversity. Mentors described putting significant time and effort into working closely with other key individuals as well as one-on-one with mentees because they identified considerable environmental need; however, extra-dyadic facets of their roles were far less clearly defined or supported. They described challenges associated with role overload and opaque role boundaries, feeling unsupported by other adults in mentees’ lives, and frustrated by the prevalence of risks. Community-based mentoring represents a unique opportunity to connect with families, but mentors must be supported around the elements of their roles that extend beyond mentor-mentee relationships in order to capitalize more fully on the promise of the intervention.

The Effects of Family Functioning and Psychological Suzhi Between School Climate and Problem Behaviors

“…It is more beneficial to individual development to intervene on various factors, rather than to intervene on only a single factor from a practical perspective (Luthans et al, 2006;Pervanidou et al, 2019). Developmental system theory states that school and family not only act independently on youth development, but they also interact and connect (Lakind et al, 2015). Increasingly, studies have also confirmed interactions between different development backgrounds (Luthans et al, 2015;Zhang Y. et al, 2017).…”

Empirical investigation of a moderating and mediating variable in between mentoring and job performance: A structural model

“…It has been found that those individuals who experienced high quality relationship (as defined by measures of closeness, satisfaction, and engagement in their relationships) derived more benefits than those who experience lower quality relationships (Chan et al, 2013;Schwartz, Rhodes, Chan, & Herrera, 2011). Mentoring enhances relationship quality (Hu et al, 2016;Lakind et al, 2015;Sandner, 2015). A healthy relationship increases the frequency of interaction and acquisition of skills, which enables individuals to perform effectively (Nahrgang, Morgeson, & Illies, 2009).…”

“…Earlier studies have also recommended exploration of the moderating and mediating variables between mentoring and its outcomes (DuBois, Holloway, Valentin, & Cooper, 2002;Godshalk & Sosik, 2000;Jyoti & Sharma, 2015b). Previous researchers have revealed a positive impact of mentoring on quality of relationship (Lakind, Atkins, & Eddy, 2015;Langhout, Rhodes, & Osborne, 2004;Sandner, 2015), communication satisfaction (Madlock & Lightsey, 2010;Rowland, 2012), and personal learning (Lankau & Scandura, 2002;Pan et al, 2011). Further, Schunk and Mullen (2013) conceptualised that an integration of mentoring with self-regulated learning gives desired results, i.e., academic motivation, achievement, long-term productivity, and retention of individuals in the profession.…”

Feedback‐informed treatment and autonomy supportiveness: Effects on children s psychological outcomes

“…Recognizing the child's unique perspectives and avoiding pressure helps children to internalize expectations and regulations which in turn leads to these expectations becoming personally meaningful and freely chosen (Zuroff, Koestner, Moskowitz, McBride, & Bagby, 2012). Children without parental influences should partner with male mentors (Lakind, Atkins, & Eddy, 2016). When a paternal figure is present in a client's life but is perceived as having little involvement, the child should be matched with a paternal mentor to improve wellbeing, therapeutic alliance, and reduce the risk for treatment dropout.…”

“…The POPS was found to be reliable with Cronbach's α ranging from 0.55 to 0.70 (Grolnick et al (1991) feedback from clients regarding the client-therapist fit and the clients' report of overall well-being. Children without parental influences should partner with male mentors (Lakind, Atkins, & Eddy, 2016). Children without parental influences should partner with male mentors (Lakind, Atkins, & Eddy, 2016).…”