Practice Profile: Mentoring Youth With Emotional and Behavioral Problems

Practice Goals/Target Population

Research has demonstrated a need for more adequate mental health care for youth in the United States (Costello et al. 2003). One method to help youth with mental health problems, such as emotional and behavioral problems, is mentoring, defined as a structured and trusting relationship that brings young people together with caring individuals who offer guidance, support, and encouragement to develop the competence and character of each mentee (MENTOR/National Mentoring Partnership 2003). The goals of mentoring programs that target youths with emotional and behavioral problems are to decrease the prevalence of their psychiatric problems and to promote positive youth development.

Practice Components

While individual approaches can vary, there are at least three common factors among mentoring programs: 1) they involve mentors who are older individuals with more life experience than their mentees, who are younger; 2) mentors are expected to provide guidance to their mentees with the goal of fostering mentees’ growth, positive development, and transition into mature adulthood; and 3) the relationship between mentors and mentees involves an emotional bond that is founded on core relationship principles such as trust and respect.

Mentoring can be conducted in a variety of formats: one-on-one; group (with one mentor and multiple mentees); team (with multiple mentors and one or multiple mentees); peer (involving a youth mentoring other youths); and online/e-mentoring (by email and over the internet) [Sipe 2005] and it can take place in numerous settings (for example, community, school, or workplace). Regardless of the format or location, mentors provide mentees with tangible, emotional, or informational support that can help improve mentee outcomes (Barrera and Prelow 2000).

Youth with emotional and behavioral problems may be in psychiatric treatment. For these youth, mentors can provide certain supports and flexibility that traditional service providers, such as therapists, social workers, and counselors, may not be able to provide. For example, the structuring of mentoring programs enables mentors and mentees to develop longer-term relationships with minimal role boundaries. Further, mentors can have direct influences on these youth and their emotional and behavioral outcomes through activities such as talking about interpersonal and social-emotional difficulties, modeling effective problem-solving, rehearsing skills learned in therapy, being a safety line during crisis, and tutoring to improve academic performance, which in turn may enhance mentee mental health. Mentors can also have indirect influences on youth and their emotional and behavioral outcomes by encouraging youth to obtain or adhere to therapeutic services, de-stigmatizing therapy, and providing transportation (Ginsburg-Block, Rohrbeck, and Fantuzzo, 2006). Overall, direct support or influence involves mentors taking on a primary role in the mentee’s life, whereas indirect support or influence involves mentors taking on a secondary, more supportive role.

Key Personnel

Mentors are not therapists, but some mentoring programs teach mentors cognitive-behavioral therapy skills (e.g., contingency management) to help them be more helpful in their interactions with their mentees (Jent and Niec, 2009). Mentors are also not intended to be parental figures or peers to their younger mentees; rather, mentors serve as a transitional figure with parent- and peer-like qualities (Levinson et al., 1978). Mentor-mentee relationships may include formal mentoring organized by a program such as Big Brothers Big Sisters and that typically involves mentor training, supervision, and support; and informal or natural mentoring by a non-parental adult who is an established figure in the young person’s life such as a teacher, coach, or uncle (Zimmerman, Bingenheimer, and Behrendt, 2005).

Practice Theory

Mentoring youth with emotional and behavioral problems is rooted in a few theories. Rhodes (2005) developed a general theoretical model of youth mentoring, which proposes that the mentoring relationship, founded on basic principles such as mutuality, trust, and empathy, fosters positive outcomes for youth (e.g., decreased depressive symptoms) via processes that engender youth’s social-emotional, cognitive, and identity development. The more avenues of development that the mentoring relationship addresses, the more effective the relationship should be at promoting positive outcomes for youth. Further, providing youth resources to deal with life stressors and improve their mental health through mentoring is aligned with ecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979), which posits that youths are nested in multiple, larger systems (i.e., families, peer circles, schools, communities), and to address their internal states fully and effectively, therapy must address the contextual issues that directly and indirectly influence the individual. Therefore, connecting youth with psychiatric problems with caring adults, and providing them with more individual and internally focused treatment, may help youth better adapt to their external life circumstances (Kerr and King, 2013).

Mental Health & Behavioral Health | Internalizing behavior

Examining the results across eight studies, Meyerson (2013) found a statistically significant effect of mentoring on measures of youths internalizing symptoms (Hedges g = .260). This means that youths in the treatment group who received mentoring for emotional and behavioral problems demonstrated improvement in internalizing symptoms (including reductions in depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation, and increases in self-esteem), compared with youths in the control group who did not receive mentoring.

Mental Health & Behavioral Health | Externalizing behavior

Examining the results across nine studies, Meyerson (2013) found a statistically significant effect of mentoring on measures of youths externalizing symptoms (Hedges g = .479). This means that youths in the treatment group who received mentoring for emotional and behavioral problems demonstrated improvements in externalizing behavior (including reductions in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, antisocial behavior, drug use, and suspensions), compared with youths in the control group who did not receive mentoring.

Mental Health & Behavioral Health | Interpersonal Skills

Examining the results across five studies, Meyerson (2013) found a statistically significant effect of mentoring on measures of youths interpersonal skills (Hedges g = .566). This means that youths in the treatment group who received mentoring for emotional and behavioral problems demonstrated improvement in interpersonal skills (including social skills, social support, family connectedness, and peer connectedness), compared with youths in the control group who did not receive mentoring.

Meta-Analysis Snapshot
	Literature Coverage Dates	Number of Studies	Number of Study Participants
Meta Analysis	1975-2010	13	3162

Meta Analysis

Meyerson (2013) conducted a meta-analysis to examine the effectiveness of mentoring interventions for youths with emotional and behavioral problems on their internalizing and externalizing symptoms and interpersonal skills.

A comprehensive search was conducted for published and unpublished studies. Studies were identified through four major database searches: PsycINFO, Academic Search Premier, ERIC, and Social Science Citation Index, as well as Google Scholar, ProQuest Dissertations, and Theses Database, and through manual searches of prominent journals in the field (including American Journal of Community Psychology and Child and Family Behavior Therapy, among others) for all published articles and dissertations on the topic. Leading authors in the field also were contacted for any unpublished studies.

Studies that met all of the following criteria were included: (1) they involved the evaluation of a youth mentoring program, which included an array of programs including paid and unpaid mentors, one-on-one versus group formats; (2) they included a sample of youth mentees with a mean age of 19 or younger; (3) participants had a diagnosed mental health disorder as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or had an identified emotional or behavioral problem or symptom that often required clinical care, such as suicidal ideation (studies that used the terminology at risk were considered for inclusion on a case-by-case basis to determine whether the level of risk was high enough to be considered clinical (4) mentoring was the sole or central intervention evaluated; (5) they included a comparison group of nonmentored youth; (6) they examined the effects of participation either by preprogram versus postprogram comparison or by postprogram-only data collection and analysis (the latter were included only if they controlled for confounding variables, either by matched comparison of groups or by statistical control of covariates); (7) there was sufficient, available data to compute an effect size to address at least one outcome of interest; (8) the data were from independent samples; and (9) they were written in English.

Approximately 150 studies were identified initially by examining article abstracts. Of these, 13 studies (11 randomized controlled or stratified controlled trials, and 2 quasi-experimental designs) fit all eligibility criteria. The 13 studies included 3,162 total participants. The average age of mentees in the studies ranged from 7.0 to 18.8 years old, with a mean age of 13.4 years.

Four outcome categories were generated: 1) internalizing symptoms (e.g., depressive symptoms, suicidal ideation, and self-esteem), 2) externalizing symptoms (e.g., Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, antisocial behavior, drug use, and suspensions), 3) interpersonal skills (e.g., social skills, social support, family connectedness, and peer connectedness), and 4) school/academic (e.g., school connectedness, attendance, task orientation). The CrimeSolutions review of this practice focused on outcomes in the internalizing, externalizing, and interpersonal categories.

Effect sizes were computed as standardized mean differences, or Cohen d, from pre and post data from independent groups (intervention and control). Each effect size value was weighted by its sample size specifically the inverse of the effect size variance to convert Cohens d to Hedges g. A random-effects model was used for all analyses. The effect size for internalizing symptoms was based on eight studies; externalizing symptoms was based on nine studies; and interpersonal skills was based on five studies. Moderator analyses were conducted with both categorical and continuous variables as moderators to explore effect size differences between groups of samples.

These sources were used in the development of the practice profile:

Barrera Jr., Manuel, and Hazel Prelow. 2000. “Interventions to Promote Social Support in Children and Adolescents.” In Dante Cicchetti, Julian Rappaport, Irwin N. Sandler, and Roger P. Weissberg (eds.). The Promotion of Wellness in Children and Adolescents. Washington, D.C.: CWLA Press.

Bronfenbrenner, Urie. 1979. The Ecology of Human Development: Experiments in Nature and Design. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

Costello, E. Jane, Sarah A. Mustillo, Alaattin Erkanli, Gordon Keeler, and Adrian Angold. 2003. “Prevalence and Development of Psychiatric Disorders in Childhood and Adolescence.” Archives of General Psychiatry 60 (8):837–44.

Ginsburg–Block, Marika D., Cynthia A. Rohrbeck, and John W. Fantuzzo. 2006. “A Meta-Analytic Review of Social, Self-Concept, and Behavioral Outcomes of Peer-Assisted Learning.” Journal of Educational Psychology 98(4):732–49.

Jent, Jason F., and Larissa N. Niec. 2009. “Cognitive Behavioral Principles Within Group Mentoring: A Randomized Pilot Study.” Child & Family Behavior Therapy 31(1):203–19.

Kerr, David C.R., and Cheryl A. King. 2013. “Youth With Mental Health Needs.” In David Lane DuBois, and Michael J. Karcher (eds.). Handbook of Youth Mentoring, 2nd edition. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications.

Levinson, Daniel J., Charlotte N. Darrow, Edward B. Klein, Maria H. Levinson, and Braxton McKee. 1978. Seasons of a Man’s Life. New York, New York: Knopf.

MENTOR/National Mentoring Partnership. 2003. Elements of Effective Practice for Mentoring, 2nd edition. Alexandria, Virginia: MENTOR.

Rhodes, Jean E. 2005. “A Model of Youth Mentoring.” In David Lane DuBois and Michael J. Karcher (eds.). Handbook of Youth Mentoring. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage.

Sipe, Cynthia L. 2005. “Toward a Typology of Mentoring.” In David Lane DuBois, and Michael J. Karcher (eds.). Handbook of Youth Mentoring. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications.

Practice Profile: Mentoring Youth With Emotional and Behavioral Problems

Practice Summary

Practice Description

Practice Goals/Target Population

Practice Components

Key Personnel

Practice Theory

Meta-Analysis Outcomes

Meta-Analysis Methodology

Cost

Other Information

Evidence-Base (Meta-Analyses Reviewed)

Additional References

Related Programs