Mentoring Relationships: A Means to Others 88 views

Youth mentoring is a widespread service to support positive development. Mentor-mentee relationships are the defining feature of the service, but little is known about the interaction between mentoring relationships and mentees’ relationships with parents and peers. The current dissertation explores: 1) whether close mentoring relationships generalize to improvements in parent and peer relationships; 2) the reciprocal impact of parent and peer relationships on mentor-mentee relationships; and 3) how stable, trait-like differences between mentees may affect these processes. Paper one examines mentoring and peer social acceptance, finding that mentees with fewer peer relationships may benefit more from mentoring, but suggests that mentoring may not be an effective intervention strategy for lonely and socially isolated youth. Paper two examines the reciprocal relationship between mentoring and parent-child trust, with result suggesting a directional effect between mentoring and parent-child trust. Paper three explores reciprocal associations between mentoring and relationships with parents and peers across two years, with results that include dynamic growth within mentoring but little reciprocal associations with other relationships. Overall, findings highlight the nuanced role of mentoring relationships as a means to improve other relationships, and emphasize the importance of mentoring as a relational experience in its own right.

PHD (Doctor of Philosophy)

youth mentoring; mentoring relationships; positive development

English

2025-08-01