Boston University. University Professors Program Senior theses. / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-02

Youth mentoring is often used to engage increasing numbers of disaffected and marginalised young people. As such, this research explores the extent to which key workers, across a range professional settings, adopt and integrate mentoring practices into their primary role. The research suggests that key workers recognise an informal and caring dimension to their primary role and use the term mentoring to capture the diversity of this activity. However, the attempt to facilitate integration into mainstream values and norms suggests that key workers and youngsters are actually engaged in a form of social pedagogy; undertaking social action to promote the personal development and general wellbeing of the youngster. As a piece of qualitative action research – based primarily on semi-structured interviews with key workers and young people – this inquiry also explores the extent to which practitioner mentoring, or social pedagogy, is successful as a transformation strategy – that is, the extent to which young people alter their attitudes, behaviours and beliefs as a result of being supported in this manner. The findings suggest that the informality of the interactions, a shared activity, the strength of the relationships and the duration of contact, are important aspects of social pedagogy/youth mentoring. The research has clear implications for practitioners, since the development of a ‘pedagogic perspective’ introduces a body of social theory into work previously undertaken intuitively. This, in turn, requires practitioners across professional settings to; engage with ‘clients’ on an a personal level to build trust and rapport, develop pedagogic opportunities that facilitate access to mainstream activities and, finally, maintain meaningful relationships until social inclusion is secure.

This thesis explored whether youth mentoring could be used as a crime prevention strategy for Ontario. It examined risk factors for youth crime and social bonding theory, the effectiveness of selected programs to prevent crime and best practices, and Ontario government reports on effective crime prevention. It also explored youth mentoring in practice with some mentors from Big Brothers Big Sisters of Ottawa and Sudbury Ontario. The analysis of the literature on risk factors for youth crime identified a number of individual, relationship, community, and societal level factors that correlate with the likelihood of a young person engaging in crime. Travis Hirschi’s social bonding theory provided a lens to understand the contribution mentoring can have on preventing crime through attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief with parents and schools. The evidence-based research on the effectiveness of selected programs that had a mentoring component showed that the likelihood of offending could be reduced with other well-being indicators. Research on mentoring relationships showed that when mentors focused on the assets of the youth and were committed to the relationship, they could foster a lasting emotional bond. Best practices of an effective youth mentoring program included outreaching to vulnerable youth, involving parents, screening and training mentors, matching mentors and mentees based on background, having mentoring connected to a larger strategy, following a developmental approach, and developing standards for implementation. The recent reports from the Province of Ontario on crime prevention and community safety use much of the same evidence on risk factors and social development programs to confirm that prevention is an effective way to reduce crime. These reports also point to strong public support for government investment in prevention and education over punishment. The semi-structured interviews with mentoring practitioners in Sudbury and Ottawa, Ontario analyzed the methods used by mentors volunteering with high-risk youth in the Big Brothers Big Sisters community-based program. Results showed the organizational procedure, youth and risk factors, the bonding process between mentors and mentees, and challenges of mentoring at-risk youth were important. Mentors had positive beliefs on the impacts mentoring had on preventing crime and violence. Therefore, youth mentoring is a crime prevention strategy consistent with evidence and government reports and so is viable, but will require political support and investment upstream to make a difference across the province.

Youth mentoring has become a popular program model promoting positive youth development and outpacing available research to guide all the programmatic growth. The systemic model of mentoring (Keller, 2005) expands the traditional mentor-youth dyadic focus of program development and evaluation, taking into account other important contextual and influencing factors including the role of parents, program staff and the larger agency. However, there remains an absence of literature that examines what is known about parental involvement and the role parents play in their child's formal mentoring relationship. This study explores the nature of parental involvement in formal community-based youth mentoring relationships. An analysis was conducted of in-depth qualitative interviews collected at multiple data points from parents and mentors of 30 mentoring matches, selected from a larger longitudinal study of youth mentoring relationships, and one-time in-depth interviews with 12 staff members from the agencies supervising the mentoring matches conducted for the purposes of this study (a total of 162 transcripts). Thematic coding and narrative summaries were utilized to develop themes that were compared within and across cases. This analysis yielded three main findings regarding the nature of parental involvement in mentoring relationships and the beliefs surrounding it, namely 1) the presence of distinct assumptions and expectations held by participants regarding parents and their involvement in mentoring relationships, 2) the identification by participants of five parental roles that were both expected of and actually performed by parents in their child's mentoring relationship, and 3) the identification of three types of parent-mentor interactions, which contributed to the characterization of parent-mentor relationships based on a level of communication and a degree of closeness. These study findings bring the perspectives of parents to the forefront in the examination of parental involvement in mentoring, a topic that is only beginning to gain greater attention within mentoring literature and research. Together these findings suggest that programs may be missing opportunities to tap into an important yet undervalued resource of parents, in supporting and strengthening the youth-mentor relationship.

There are over 13 million children and adolescents in poverty in the United States today. These children and adolescents are likely to remain poor throughout their life, and are less likely to be upwardly mobile than their middle-income peers. Although structural change is needed in order to redress economic immobility on a large scale, informal mentoring may be one small person-level intervention that can help promote mobility. Informal mentoring (positive relationships with caring non-parental adults), has already been associated with key building blocks to economic success, including educational attainment and early employment. This dissertation is the first study to examine if informal mentors can promote economic mobility for adolescents, asking (1) is informal mentorship associated with upward mobility? and (2) do some mentoring relationships promote upward mobility more than others? This study uses data from three waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (AddHealth). Research Question 1 uses propensity score matching to isolate the effect of informal mentoring on economic mobility, both for low-income and middle-income youth as a comparison. Research Question 2 uses cluster analysis and a series of logistic regressions to determine (a) types of informal mentoring relationships and (b) whether some types better promote economic mobility for low-income youth. Findings from this dissertation demonstrate that some, but not all, informal mentors can promote economic upward for low-income youth. Simply having a mentor did not promote mobility for low-income youth. In order to be upwardly mobile, they needed to have a "capital" mentor, i.e., someone who comes from outside their immediate social circle and connects them to other important relationships and resources. These are in contrast with "core" mentors, long-standing, important relationships from within the family that provide emotional support. This dissertation shows that some mentors can, in fact, make a difference for low-income adolescents' economic outcomes in adulthood. Low-income youth, however, were less likely to have an informal mentor, and only 45% of those who were mentored had the type that could promote mobility. Findings from this dissertation suggest that those who are interested in promoting economic mobility for low-income youth should thus promote capital mentoring relationships. / 2021-06-04T00:00:00Z

4-H Youth and Families with Promise (4-H YFP) is a one to one youth mentoring program that aims to help youth obtain skills that will help them to be successful. The purpose of this research was to determine if any positive outcomes were shown of youth participating in 4-H YFP. Positive outcomes were identified as peer social competence, greater ability to make positive choices, the development of effective communication skills, building connections, and contributing to the community. Results show that these outcomes positively increased among youth participants in the 4-H YFP program- but the changes were too small to be of any significance. Results also show that the longer youth are enrolled in the program, the greater their peer social competence, ability to make positive choices, and effectively communicate.

Emerging literature emphasizes the importance of mentoring in the development of minority youth. In particular, mentoring influences the development of youths' sense of self and self-concept. By examining the conceptual frameworks of both mentoring and racial socialization, this study summarizes the theoretical processes associated with youth development and how such development relates to young women's ethnic/racial identity including their body image. The mentoring relationship is examined with a small pool of ethnic-minority, college-aged female participants to explore whether there is a relationship between having received positive mentoring and the participant's current body image perceptions.

The one condition that is bottom line for the survival of humanity is socio-ecological integrity. Youth mentoring helps to build capacities in youth to preserve and promote social integrity. This thesis looks at youth mentoring programs in general and Mentor Sweden specifically, and analyzes how youth mentoring programs can contribute strategically towards a sustainable development through the lens of the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development. The final outcome is a proposed set of suggestions which any mentoring organization can use in order to help move society strategically towards sustainable development through its mentoring programs.

Formal mentoring programs rely on mentors to build supportive relationships with youth with the intention of providing positive developmental opportunities for the youth. This dissertation, which includes three studies, explores the experiences of mentors, focusing on factors that contribute to mentors committing to and sustaining mentoring relationships, and how mentors approach building a supportive relationship. Study 1 develops and tests a conceptual model of mentor retention integrating concepts from the volunteerism and interpersonal relationship literatures to predict mentor retention. Participants were 51 college student-mentors. Path analysis showed support for the conceptual model. Mentor retention was predicted by their commitment but not by role identity. Role identity was positively related to mentor commitment. Role identity was predicted by relationship satisfaction, available alternatives and investment; only satisfaction predicted commitment. Study 2 examined how program practices influence mentor commitment utilizing secondary data from 551 mentors from mentoring programs involved in a large, randomized controlled trial evaluating an intervention to improve mentoring program quality. Path analysis demonstrated that how well the mentor felt the program set expectations and whether they were matched with a youth based on their preferences were associated with the mentor’s commitment. The relationships between commitment and program practices were partially mediated by the mentor’s relationship satisfaction and available alternatives. Study 3 explores how mentors approach building their mentoring relationship, whether different approaches contribute to supports offered to the youth, and if there are differences by gender or whether the mentor has previous experience mentoring. Thematic analysis of 16 mentoring relationships did not identify any specific approach as best. Instead, what mattered was the fit of the approach with the specific circumstances of the match. Mentors whose approach fit well or who were able to adapt their approach had the longest matches and provided the most support. Males were more often described to have an approach that was a good fit and to have provided more support. Whether previous mentoring experience helped a mentor build the relationship and support the youth depended on how the previous relationship went and how it influenced the mentor’s expectations with regard to the current match.

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