Youth-Nex Feb25 Works-in-Progress Meeting
Exploring profiles of risk and protective factors among youth mentees: For whom does mentoring work
- - EST
- Hybrid: Zoom/Ridley Hall 206
Youth-Nex is hosting their monthly Works-in-Progress meeting that are open to members of the EHD community! EHD grad student Meg Meldrum will be getting feedback on "Exploring profiles of risk and protective factors among youth mentees: For whom does mentoring work."
Presentation Description:
Youth mentoring programs are popular interventions to promote a range of healthy developmental outcomes and can reduce risky behaviors. However, less research has been dedicated to examining differential benefits for youth based on the strengths and challenges they bring to the mentoring relationship. This lack of research testing for whom mentoring works may in part explain the modest effects that have been observed. Moreover, greater attention to the structural and systemic forces that influence youth’s lived experiences, coping, and developmental outcomes is needed. Consideration of both risk and protective factors as they relate to resilience expands mentoring's traditional emphasis on risk reduction. We sought to first identify and characterize profiles of risk factors and existing social support among adolescents participating in one-on-one youth mentoring upon program entry. Drawing on the Dual Axis Coping Formulation of Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory (PVEST), we expected profiles to vary along a continuum for risk factor and social support presence. We then examined whether profiles were associated with youth race/ethnicity or gender, given the varied challenges that can be associated with these identities. Finally, using the predicted profiles, we examined whether the addition of a mentor—an added social support—led to differential benefits for youth in academic self-efficacy, academic achievement, and educational aspirations—conceptualized as proxies for adaptive coping, or resilience.
Lunch will be provided in Ridley 206, or you can join via Zoom. Please email [email protected] to RSVP or get the Zoom info.