The role of family relationships in youth mentoring: An ecological perspective

Abstract

Mentoring programs have historically focused on the relationship between the mentor and mentee as the primary means for supporting academic, behavioral, and social-emotional outcomes among youth participating in these programs. However, research also indicates that other significant relationships, like family relationships, are important in promoting positive youth outcomes. The current exploratory study takes an ecological approach by examining family relationships as a potential moderator of youth mentoring outcomes. Participants were adolescent girls who participated in a year-long, gender-specific, school-based mentoring program (n = 69), or served as controls (n = 59). Data were collected from pre- and post-intervention surveys. Multiple regression analyses tested for an interaction between participants’ family relationship characteristics and their intervention status on various social-emotional, academic, and behavioral outcomes. Results indicated that higher levels of family support significantly predicted higher youth academic plans, and lower family deviant beliefs significantly predicted fewer delinquent behaviors; however, the interactions between family and intervention status were not significant. Findings suggest that family relationship characteristics merit attention when seeking to promote youth outcomes. Implications include supporting ecological frameworks for mentoring by refining targets of mentoring interventions to consider the role of family factors.