The roles of ethnic identity and stressors in natural mentoring support among Latinx adolescents

Abstract

This study explored whether Latinx adolescents’ ethnic identity and stressful experiences predicted characteristics of their naturally-occurring mentoring relationships with non-parental adults. Ninth-grade Latinx students completed surveys about ethnic identity, stress exposure, and their natural mentoring relationships during 9th and 10th grade. Youth who showed greater ethnic identity exploration in 9th grade perceived more support from mentors who were family members at follow-up. In addition, Latinx youth who experienced more stressors were less likely to identify familial mentors and to retain familial and Latinx mentors from baseline to follow-up. Youth who were exposed to more stressors also reported receiving significantly more support from their natural mentors at follow-up, but this association was only observed for non-Latinx mentors. Findings are some of the first to identify predictors of mentor retention and perceived mentoring relationship support among Latinx youth, and have implications for understanding intergenerational relationships that may promote resilience in this population.