Michael J. Nakkula

Developmental Mentoring Match Characteristics: Correspondence between Mentors' and Mentees' Assessments of Relationship Quality

Understanding the factors that contribute to high-quality mentoring relationships is critical to developing and sustaining effective mentoring programs. In study 1, sixty-three adolescent mentors, from two high schools, were surveyed four to six weeks after being matched with elementary-age mentees. Hierarchical regression models revealed that mentees’ academic and behavioral risk status, parental involvement, and program quality all explained variance in mentor-perceived relationship quality, but none remained significant predictors after mentors’ self-efficacy, motivations for self-enhancement, and assessments of their mentees’ support seeking behaviors were accounted for. Study 2 cross-validates the regression model in study 1 and examines the concurrent validity and predictive validity of a measure of mentoring match characteristics using mid-year and end-of-year assessments from mentees and mentors.Editors’ Strategic Implications: The focus on mentors’ initial impressions of their mentees and the relationship represents a novel contribution to the study of relationship formation and persistence. The authors provide a promising strategy – and descriptions of specific measures – to help programs study relationships that endure or terminate. Coordinators will benefit from the knowledge that if mentors feel efficacious and if the mentoring relationship is strong, mentors are more likely to persist.

Youth mentoring with a balanced focus, shared purpose, and collaborative interactions.

This opening article defines the ways in which three mentoring interaction elements--focus, purpose, and authorship--distinguish between effective and ineffective mentoring relationship styles. The framework described can help mentors better understand the difference between prescriptive and instrumental styles and differentiate laissez-faire from developmental mentoring. It also reveals unique ways for program staff to develop training materials and for researchers to better study mentoring activities. The authors suggest that being able to articulate the importance of focus, purpose, and authorship is critical for shaping program practices, designing relevant research, and guiding program evaluations.

Beyond the dichotomy of work and fun: Measuring the thorough interrelatedness of structure and quality in youth mentoring relationships

Measuring the various structural aspects of the organizing framework for this volume and relating them to match quality and relevant developmental outcomes is a critical step toward assessing the frameworks utility for practitioners, policymakers, and program evaluators. Nakkula and Harris take a step in that direction by exploring core interrelationships between match structure, as defined in the framework, and mentor and mentee experiences of match quality. Central to their findings is the pivotal role of sharing--mentor and mentee discussions of concerns and everyday experiences--as a moderator of fun in the prediction of relationship quality as experienced by both the mentor and mentee, and as a moderator of more growth-oriented emphases in the prediction of instrumental match quality. In short, sharing seems to provide the boost that helps make fun and instrumental orientations more holistically developmental. Training mentors and mentees to share more effectively in their matches may serve to enhance the overall experience of match quality for both partners.

A crooked path to success

Becoming a successful student, particularly for those who have fallen behind, requires motivation, engagement with school, and authentic ownership of ones own education.

A Risk and Prevention Counselor Training Program Model: Theory and Practice.

The need for training mental health counselors in risk and prevention is presented, and justification of the development of an innovative and integrative prevention training program is offered. Theoretical underpinnings that connect the counseling discipline to the field of prevention are described. A risk and prevention training model from Harvard Graduate School of Education is presented as a case example that illustrates the integration of prevention practices into a counselor training curriculum. Prevention research initiatives are described as vehicles for interactive learning and training. Challenges and future opportunities for programmatic implementation are reviewed with attention towards systematic planning and program design.

Community Sustainability: Orlando’s Healthy Community Initiative

In an area of exceptionally high mobility, Orlando’s Healthy Communities • Healthy Youth (HC • HY) initiative focuses on building a sense of community coherence and ownership by emphasizing community revitalization activities. Examples of this approach include “listening projects,” which consist of interviews conducted by youth and young adults with neighborhood residents to learn what they envision for their neighborhoods, and what is needed to make that happen. Youth then bring knowledge from these interviews to youth philanthropy planning meetings. By learning to assess the needs of the community and linking them with planning grants, youth are mentored into civic leadership roles. Through extensive efforts to connect residents of all ages in their community revitalization efforts, the Healthy Community • Healthy Youth Initiative of Central Florida (hereafter referred to as HCI or the Orlando initiative, consistent with the initiative’s self-referencing) hopes to encourage more of its citizens to “put down roots” rather than just passing through.

Peer mentoring to support first-generation low-income college students:

Transitioning from high school to college can be a formidable challenge, especially for students who are the first in their family to attend college (first-generation) and/or are from low-income backgrounds. The authors’ qualitative investigation of a college mentoring program illuminates the potential value of relatable peer mentors in helping these students get off to a good start.

Pursuing “The Tipping Point”: Portland, Oregon’s Take the Time Initiative

Whereas the first two case studies we presented (Traverse Bay, Michigan’s GivEm40 and Moorhead, Minnesota’s Healthy Community Initiative) focus on particular sectors and neighborhoods, Portland’s Take the Time is organized largely around two interrelated theories of community change: diffusion of innovation theory, as articulated by Everett Rogers, and social threshold theory as discussed in Malcolm Gladwell’s popular 2000 book The Tipping Point. Diffusion of innovation theory, which argues, in part, that influential early adopters of new ideas are critical to persuading others to try them out, is used to foster a grassroots orientation to mobilizing the community. Specifically, Take the Time initially used the widespread awarding of mini-grants to get the Developmental Assets framework in the hands of a number of potentially key early adopters who might persuade others to follow their lead. This strategy was designed to stimulate local ownership of the initiative and to reflect the value placed on individual contribution, creativity, and egalitarianism.

The Forgotten Neighborhoods: Moorhead, Minnesota’s Healthy Community Initiative

We follow the Traverse Bay initiative’s emphasis on one particular sector with the focus in Moorhead, Minnesota, on the needs and invisibility of specific neighborhoods. In particular, concerns about underage drinking and lack of out-of-school activities among youth in some of the poorest White and Latino neighborhoods served as a focal point for much of this initiative’s work. By collaborating closely with parks and recreation and community law enforcement, the initiative promoted such activities as a “Weed and Seed” program in an economically depressed neighborhood. The intent of this program was to stimulate neighborhood pride and a sense of civic responsibility among the youth. In addition to working with the parks and recreation and law enforcement sectors, Moorhead has pursued its neighborhood-based orientation by actively engaging elder leaders, supporting Latino youth as community leaders, and bringing the generations together to collectively build a stronger community.

Strategic Care, Sector by Sector: Traverse Bay Area’s GivEm40 24.7

We begin our presentation of the eight Healthy Communities • Healthy Youth (HC • HY) initiatives with Traverse Bay Area’s GivEm40 24.7 (GivEm40) to illustrate an initiative that intentionally chose to go sector deep versus spreading its efforts equally across a multitude of community sectors. The hallmark of GivEm40 is the exceptional buy-in of the educational system, with all 19 of the area school system superintendents making strong commitments to the initiative. By beginning our presentation of the HC • HY approaches with a model that emphasizes sector-specific depth as its starting point, we are positioned to build toward applications that prioritize more complex cross-sector collaborations.