Generation to Generation Project: Pairing Students With Older Adult Mentors During the COVID-19 Pandemic

To meet the needs of older adults isolated in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we began pairing Human Services and Gerontology students with community dwelling adults 55 years of age and older, recruited through senior centers and other organizations serving older adults. Students paired with isolated older adults were tasked with building supportive relationships, assuring that basic needs were being met and that all available community resources were in place, and then documenting their mentor’s life stories with an emphasis on the resilience, strength and wisdom of their older adult mentors (to focus and build on their strengths, the older adults we engage with are referred to as our “mentors”). Oral histories and supporting artifacts are archived in the university’s library permanent repository. The oral histories portray unique perspectives into life, strength, and resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine. The older adult mentors participating in the Generation to Generation project reported feeling strengthened and connected through their participation in the Generation to Generation project. To determine if social Isolation and loneliness can be ameliorated through participation in the Generation to Generation oral history project, researchers utilized the UCLA Loneliness Scale in pre- and post- participation interviews; findings will be shared.

Anti-Racism Education and Training for Adult Mentors Who Work With BIPOC Adolescents

Racism and White supremacy culture shape the experiences of youth and adults in mentoring programs, which is detrimental to the development of BIPOC youth. The aims of this paper are to a) show why anti-racism training and education for adult mentors is necessary for promoting the positive development of BIPOC youth and b) offer a framework for anti-racist education and training for mentors. We review research showing how mentors’ attitudes about race, ethnicity and culture can harm their relationships with BIPOC youth and research on general mentor training, anti-racism training for mentors, and general diversity and anti-bias training in the workplace. Crossing disciplinary boundaries to inform developmental science, we draw upon critical mentoring, culturally relevant and sustaining pedagogy, and ethnic/racial identity frameworks, and propose four components for anti-racist education and training for mentors: a) acknowledging, confronting, and interrupting racism, b) facilitating youth critical consciousness, c) supporting positive identity development in youth, and d) mentors and mentees as active agents and partners. At the foundation of these pillars is decentering and interrupting Whiteness and youth as co-constructors of knowledge. We offer suggestions for future research and practice in anti-racism training for mentors, which also have implications for youth-adult relationships across settings.

To Read or Not to Eat: Anthropomorphism in Children’s Books

Anthropomorphic nonhuman animals figure prominently in children’s literature, teaching young readers relevant life lessons and adding variety, humor, and emotional distance to safely consider otherwise traumatizing ideas. Despite its educational and developmental value, however, using animal characters to tell human stories normalizes the very same mechanisms that adult humans use to subjugate real animals. Bringing animal-studies insights to bear on children’s literature and development, this article critiques the use of anthropomorphism in children’s books and urges that, short of the unrealistic demand to abandon the animal as metaphor, young readers and their adult mentors reread children’s books critically and discuss ways of making animals matter. The article examines the debate about anthropomorphism in science and its application to childhood development. It then turns to the pros and cons of anthropomorphizing animals in children’s books and discusses specific examples of books featuring anthropomorphic animal characters.

Mentoring for Improving the Self-Esteem, Resilience, and Hope of Unaccompanied Migrant Youth in the Barcelona Metropolitan Area

In the last few years, the number of unaccompanied youths arriving in Europe has increased steadily. During their settlement in host countries, they are exposed to a great variety of vulnerabilities, which have an impact on their mental health. This research examines the effects of participation in a mentoring programme on the psychological and educational outcomes among unaccompanied migrant youths who live in the Barcelona metropolitan area. Data in this mixed-methods study were obtained from 44 surveys with mentored (treatment group) and non-mentored (control group) male youths who had recently turned 18, as well as through thirty semi-structured interviews with mentored youths, their adult mentors, and non-mentored youths. Our findings indicated that participation in the mentoring programme improved the mentored youths’ self-esteem, resilience, and hope, as well as their desired or expected educational outcomes in this new context. We conclude that well-targeted and problem-specific mentoring programmes have positive and marked effects on unaccompanied migrant youths’ mental health. The social and political implications of these outcomes are also discussed, providing information on how interventions can offer effective networks of support for the settlement and social inclusion of unaccompanied migrant youths.

Engaging Youth to Reduce Depression and Risky Behaviors: Challenges of Empowerment

BackgroundYouth in communities with high rates of crime and low rates of collective efficacy are at risk of depression, substance abuse, and other types of delinquency.ObjectiveThis article presents a formative evaluation of an empowerment-oriented program intended to reduce depression and risky behaviors by improving social support, providing adult mentors, and facilitating prosocial action.MethodsQualitative interviews and observations are used to describe program delivery and a quantitative survey is used to identify correlates of program participation.FindingsQualitative data describe a systematic process of program engagement that supported individual and group empowerment. The analysis of quantitative survey results identifies an association of program participation with less depression and more self-esteem—with reduced feelings of loneliness as the mechanism of these effects—although without comparable patterns for substance abuse and other risky behaviors.ConclusionsEmpowerment-oriented programs that involve young people in supportive peer teams should be developed to help foster constructive social change.

Experiences and Needs of Multicultural Youth and Their Mentors, and Implications for Digital Mentoring Platforms: Qualitative Exploratory Study

Background Mentoring programs (ie, programs that connect youths with adult volunteers) have been shown to improve outcomes across the behavioral, social, and academic domains of youth development. As in other European countries, mentoring programs have few traditions in Norway, where interventions for multicultural youths are usually profession driven and publicly funded. Faced with the risk of disparities in education and health, there is a need to better understand this group’s experiences and requirements relative to mentoring. This would also serve as a basis for designing and implementing digital support. Objective The objective of this study was to gain insight into multicultural youth mentees’ and adult mentors’ experiences and needs in the context of an ongoing mentoring program, how digital support (electronic mentoring) might address these needs, and how such support could be designed and implemented. Methods The study used a qualitative approach, with data from 28 respondents (21 mentees and 7 mentors). In total, 4 workshops with mentees as well as semistructured interviews with mentees and mentors were conducted. The sessions were audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed thematically. Results In total, 3 main themes were identified from the experiences and needs reported by the mentees and mentors. These included a need for connection, help in achieving goals, and the need for security and control. Subthemes encompassed a desire to socialize with others, balancing the nature of the relationship, paying it forward, building trust, sharing insights and information with peers, goal-oriented mentees and mentors wanting to assist with goal achievement, and the fundamental need for privacy and anonymity in the digital platform. Conclusions The findings of this study are supported by the literature on traditional mentoring, while also offering suggestions for the design of digital solutions to supplement the in-person mentoring of multicultural youth. Suggestions include digital support for managing the mentee-mentor relationships, fostering social capital, and ways of ensuring security and control. Features of existing electronic health apps can be readily adapted to a mentoring program context, potentially boosting the reach and benefits of mentoring.

Confirming Mentoring

The Confirmation Project research clearly identified the impact of the faith-forming culture of a congregation on youth confirmation. When the congregational ecology is intentional about lifelong and life-wide faith formation, intergenerational relationships become a powerful means of faith transmission. This article explores the role and impact of mentoring in confirmation programs, a practice we found in 57 percent of the 3064 congregations surveyed. Drawing from social science research and building on biblical and theological foundations, we argue that Christian mentoring, a practice of modeling faith, provides mutual benefit for young people and their adult mentors, while also contributing to the spiritual health and relational vitality of congregations. Intergenerational mentoring at its best teaches confirmands, mentors, and congregants that they are not independent Christians, but part of an interdependent body of Christ.

When Insecure Attachment Dispositions Affect Mentoring Relationship Quality: An Exploration of Interactive Mentoring Contexts

In this study, we explored the effects of mentor and mentee insecure attachment dispositions (ambivalence and avoidance) on mentoring relationship quality while considering the specific nature of the interactive mentoring context. Participants (N = 252 matches) were enrolled in the MIRES program, a one-year college-based mentoring program that matches late adolescent mentees (17-year-olds) with young adult mentors (23-year-olds), designed to facilitate the transition to college. Using data drawn from mentors’ logbooks (at nine time points), two interactive contexts were addressed: (1) situations involving mentee academic issues and mentor proactive academic support (academically oriented), and (2) situations involving mentee personal issues and mentor emotional support, and caring (emotionally oriented). Linear regression results showed that both mentors’ and mentees’ avoidance uniquely predicted lower reports of mentoring relationship quality, but especially in emotionally oriented matches and when their partners’ attachment ambivalence was high. In matches less focused on emotional support, mentors’ attachment avoidance interacted with mentees’ ambivalence to predict positive mentoring relationship quality. Theoretical, practical, and mentor training issues are discussed.

Adolescent leadership development through participation in a robotics design challenge experience

This research study explored the adolescent leadership development experiences within teams participating in the Robotics Design Challenge sponsored by the University of Missouri Engineering Department. Since the design challenge was not a leadership development program, this research explored whether or not leadership development occurred. The first research question was whether leadership development experiences emerged. The second question took a constructivist and situational view of how the adolescents experience leadership development. The third research question examined roles of the adult mentors that fostered leadership development. The final question explored the adult-mentors' descriptions of the resulting leadership development experiences. Two sites, seven teams, and twenty-eight adolescents, ages 10 through 12, were observed during team meetings and participated in focus groups. The environment included authentic opportunity, mentor access, amount of challenge, variety of tasks, and quality and acceptance of feedback. The adolescents exhibited leadership traits and behaviors such as confidence, knowledge, teamwork, and problem solving. The adultmentors provided valuable structure and feedback. The adults reflected on the level of difficulty as being important to developing leadership and described several adolescents who exhibited leadership traits and behaviors. The robotics design challenge provided an environment in which adolescents could develop leadership skills. Providing similar opportunities to additional adolescents and incorporating leadership evelopment into those activities could be beneficial to the overall development of the adolescents.

An Evaluation of Treatment Integrity and Acceptability of Check & Connect

The study reports the treatment integrity and acceptability of Check & Connect (C&C), after implementation by 234 adult mentors with 341 students with social, emotional, and behavioral problems. To address the gaps in the treatment acceptability literature, the study further explored (a) the relation between treatment integrity and treatment acceptability of C&C and (b) the predicted effects of variables investigated in the analog studies on mentors’ treatment acceptability ratings. Overall, mentors implemented C&C with high integrity perceived as an acceptable intervention. Regression analyses showed that mentors who perceived C&C as acceptable implemented it with significantly greater integrity than mentors with lower acceptability ratings. Dosage as well as student and mentor characteristics did not predict mentors’ treatment acceptability ratings. Implications for practice and research are discussed.