The Effects of Mentoring Programs on Emotional Well-Being in Youth: a Meta-analysis

Abstract

There are a variety of skills that are not directly taught in schools yet serve as protective factors for academic success (i.e., self-efficacy, social, skills; emotional well-being; Graziano et al (Journal of School Psychology 45 3–19 2007); Minnard (Children and Schools 24(4) 233-246 2002). An intervention strategy for promoting such protective factors in school-aged children involves mentoring. Despite the dramatic increase in the implementation of mentoring programs in the first decade of the current century (Herrera et al (Making a difference in schools 2007); Portwood & Ayers (Children and Schools 30 177–185 2005), there remain few systematic program evaluations and even fewer meta-analyses examining the effects of mentoring. Specifically, there is a paucity of research examining the potential benefits of mentoring on emotional well-being. The current study addresses this gap in the literature by providing an overall assessment of the relationship between mentoring and emotional functioning of mentees. A qualitative analysis, as well as a quantitative meta-analysis, examining the effects of mentoring programs on the emotional well-being of school-aged children is presented. Overall, findings provide evidence for a small to moderate positive effect of mentoring on the emotional well-being of youth. Additional analyses focusing on specific emotional constructs indicate that mentoring has a small negative effect (d = 0.20) on negative affect, a medium negative effect on internalizing behavior (d = 0.45), and a medium positive effect on self-esteem (d = 0.45). For children, success in school requires more than reading, writing, and arithmetic thus, mentoring may be one approach to developing the necessary protective factors that can lead to greater success.