4-H Mentoring: Youth and Families with Promise—Adult Engagement and the Development of Strengths in Youth

Abstract

The 4-H Mentoring: Youth and Families with Promise program is a school, family, and community partnership designed to enhance the strengths of at-risk youth. Youth with below-average school performance, poor social skills, and/or weak family bonds are targeted. Participants are engaged by caring adults in three structurally different settings; youth are matched with a young adult mentor, enrolled in a 4-H club, and participate in monthly Family Night Out activities with their parents. The results of this strength-based study, with 345 male and 326 female youth, highlight changes in interpersonal and intrapersonal strengths. Programmatic predictors of post-program strengths varied by gender and age of participants. Findings are interpreted from an ecological systems perspective and the involvement of various adults, particularly parents, in youth development programs is encouraged.