Trajectories and impact of White mentors' beliefs about racial and ethnic discrimination in a formal youth mentoring program.

To examine associations between White mentors' beliefs regarding the presence of discrimination towards Black, Indigenous, and people of Color (BIPOC) individuals and mentoring relationship outcomes, mentors' beliefs about racial/ethnic discrimination were assessed before random mentee assignment and at the end of 9 months of mentoring. White mentors matched with BIPOC youth showed greater increases in beliefs that discrimination limits opportunities for Black Americans. Stronger endorsement of the impacts of discrimination for Hispanic Americans resulted in less youth relationship anxiety when White mentors were matched with White mentees, but not when they were matched with BIPOC mentees. Last, greater increases in beliefs that discrimination limits opportunities for Black Americans resulted in less relationship anxiety for White mentors matched with White mentees, but more relationship anxiety for those matched with BIPOC mentees. Programs should assess and address mentors' racial biases to minimize harm and augment the impact of mentoring programs for all youth.

Fear of negative evaluation and suicidal ideation among college students: the moderating role of impulsivity-like traits.

Objective: Fear of negative evaluation (FNE) is a key trait of social anxiety and has been linked to isolation and low self-esteem. Impulsivity has been shown to amplify the risk of socially anxious individuals engaging in risky behaviors such as suicidal behaviors; yet little research has examined associations between FNE and suicidality or the relationship between FNE and impulsivity. Participants/Methods: This study tested whether FNE was associated with suicidal ideation in a sample of 1,816 college students from 10 universities. Analyses also examined whether impulsivity-like traits moderated the relationship between FNE and suicidal ideation. Results: Results showed that FNE was significantly associated with suicidal ideation and the positive association between FNE and suicidal ideation was strongest among individuals with higher negative urgency and lower perseverance. Conclusions: These findings highlight FNE as an important risk factor of suicidal ideation in college students and illuminates potential influence of impulsivity on this relationship.

The Impact of Mobile Technology-Delivered Interventions on Youth Well-being: Systematic Review and 3-Level Meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Rates of mental health problems among youth are high and rising, whereas treatment seeking in this population remains low. Technology-delivered interventions (TDIs) appear to be promising avenues for broadening the reach of evidence-based interventions for youth well-being. However, to date, meta-analytic reviews on youth samples have primarily been limited to computer and internet interventions, whereas meta-analytic evidence on mobile TDIs (mTDIs), largely comprising mobile apps for smartphones and tablets, have primarily focused on adult samples. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of mTDIs for a broad range of well-being outcomes in unselected, at-risk, and clinical samples of youth. METHODS: The systematic review used 5 major search strategies to identify 80 studies evaluating 83 wellness- and mental health-focused mTDIs for 19,748 youth (mean age 2.93-26.25 years). We conducted a 3-level meta-analysis on the full sample and a subsample of the 38 highest-quality studies. RESULTS: Analyses demonstrated significant benefits of mTDIs for youth both at posttest (g=0.27) and follow-up (range 1.21-43.14 weeks; g=0.26) for a variety of psychosocial outcomes, including general well-being and distress, symptoms of diverse psychological disorders, psychosocial strategies and skills, and health-related symptoms and behaviors. Effects were significantly moderated by the type of comparison group (strongest for no intervention, followed by inert placebo or information-only, and only marginal for clinical comparison) but only among the higher-quality studies. With respect to youth characteristics, neither gender nor pre-existing mental health risk level (not selected for risk, at-risk, or clinical) moderated effect sizes; however, effects increased with the age of youth in the higher-quality studies. In terms of intervention features, mTDIs in these research studies were effective regardless of whether they included various technological features (eg, tailoring, social elements, or gamification) or support features (eg, orientation, reminders, or coaching), although the use of mTDIs in a research context likely differs in important ways from their use when taken up through self-motivation, parent direction, peer suggestion, or clinician referral. Only mTDIs with a clear prescription for frequent use (ie, at least once per week) showed significant effects, although this effect was evident only in the higher-quality subsample. Moderation analyses did not detect statistically significant differences in effect sizes based on the prescribed duration of mTDI use (weeks or sessions), and reporting issues in primary studies limited the analysis of completed duration, thereby calling for improved methodology, assessment, and reporting to clarify true effects. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, this study's findings demonstrate that youth can experience broad and durable benefits of mTDIs, delivered in a variety of ways, and suggest directions for future research and development of mTDIs for youth, particularly in more naturalistic and ecologically valid settings.

A Cross-Cultural Examination of the Role of Youth Emotion Regulation in Mentoring Relationships.

Youth mentoring programs have grown in popularity, both within the United States (U.S.) and abroad, as an intervention to support youth with common behavioral and emotional difficulties. However, it is unclear whether certain dimensions of youth risk may diminish the positive impact of formalized mentoring relationships. The current study therefore examined whether youth emotion regulation, a transdiagnostic risk factor for both externalizing and internalizing behavioral difficulties, predicted mentoring relationship quality and the likelihood of early match closure. Participants included 1,298 randomized mentor-youth dyads from two nationwide mentoring programs, one with chapters across the U.S. (youth: 56% female; 37% White), and another with chapters across Mexico (youth: 49% female; 100% non-Indigenous). At baseline, youth completed the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents (ERQ-CA). At program completion, youth and mentors completed measures of mentoring relationship quality. Multigroup structural equation models of youth outcomes revealed that greater youth use of cognitive reappraisal predicted better mentoring relationship quality in both countries when co-varying for sex, and that this relationship was stronger for mentor-youth pairs in the U.S. compared to those in Mexico. These findings have important implications for understanding the ways in which youth characteristics might shape the quality and impact of mentoring relationships across different cultural settings.

Cross-age peer mentoring for youth: A meta-analysis.

Although most mentoring programs for youth are structured around intergenerational relationships, a growing number of programs rely on cross-age peer mentoring. Such programs capitalize on the availability of youth mentors to promote positive outcomes in younger peers. This study used a multilevel meta-analytic approach to estimate the effect size of cross-age peer mentoring programs and evaluate potential moderators of peer mentoring program effectiveness. Analyses included six studies and revealed a medium-sized overall effect of cross-age peer mentoring programs (g = 0.45). Several characteristics moderated effect sizes, with larger effects for programs that were conducted outside of the school setting (i.e., weekend, summer, or in community settings), conducted in urban settings, and had moderate/high levels of adult oversight and supervision. Results highlight the potential benefits of cross-age peer mentoring for youth.

Effects of Natural Mentoring Relationships on College Students' Mental Health: The Role of Emotion Regulation.

The transition to college involves a number of novel stressors for young adults and represents a period of heightened risk for the onset or worsening of diverse mental health problems. The presence of natural mentors may be one factor which alleviates risk for mental health problems in college first-year students. Using a diverse sample of 275 first-year college students, the present study examined the effects of different types of natural mentors within students' support networks on internalizing symptoms during the first semester of college. In addition, analyses explored whether different student approaches to emotion regulation were one mechanism by which natural mentors influence internalizing symptoms. Path analyses indicated that students with a greater number of close family member/family friend mentors reported less emotion suppression, which in turn accounted for the associations between these mentoring relationships and reduced depressive symptoms and worry at follow-up. In contrast, less emotionally close mentors, such as teachers or coworkers, did not significantly shape emotion regulation strategies or internalizing symptom outcomes. Results have implications for the design of more targeted interventions that promote emotional well-being in college first-year students.

Effects of stress on eating behaviours in adolescents: a daily diary investigation.

OBJECTIVE: The current study aimed to use ecologically valid assessments to examine within- and between-person associations between adolescents' daily stress and unhealthy eating behaviours. Design: Daily diary assessments were used to investigate whether daily perceived stress and negative life events were associated with naturally occurring eating behaviours across the span of one week in a community-based sample of 88 adolescents. Results: Logistic hierarchical models demonstrated between-person effects of stress on eating, such that adolescents who endorsed greater perceived stress and more daily negative life events, on average, across the one-week period, also reported elevated rates of craving tasty foods and trouble stopping the consumption of tasty foods. Within-person findings showed that some eating behaviours were associated with day-to-day, within-person fluctuations in stressful experiences. On days marked by higher than usual perceived stress (relative to one's own average levels during the week), adolescents reported an increased likelihood of eating to cope with difficult emotions. Conclusions: Findings indicate that daily fluctuations in stress may contribute to unhealthy eating behaviours during adolescence, and that associations between stress and eating behaviour may differ depending on whether they are assessed within-person or between-persons.

Predictors of close faculty-student relationships and mentorship in higher education: findings from the Gallup-Purdue Index.

College students' supportive relationships with mentors-professors, advisors, and other caring adults to whom students turn as they develop their interests and career paths-are critical to their development and academic success. The current study sought to explore factors that promote or impede the formation of positive mentor-student relationships during college using a large, nationally representative sample of 5,684 college graduates from the Gallup-Purdue Index. Linear regression models revealed that first-generation college students, as well as students attending larger institutions, rated faculty and other college staff as less caring and supportive, and were less able to identify a supportive mentoring relationship during college. Greater engagement at college, including participation in faculty research, academic internships, long-term projects, and extracurricular clubs or activities, was associated with stronger perceptions of faculty support and mentorship while in college. Interestingly, demographic characteristics moderated the effects of some extracurricular activities on students' experiences. For example, participants with more student loans showed a stronger positive association between participation in long-term academic projects and perceptions of faculty support, relative to students with few loans. These findings have important implications for policies designed to foster sustained and meaningful faculty-student relationships for all students, including those traditionally marginalized on college campuses.

Non-Specific versus Targeted Approaches to Youth Mentoring: A Follow-up Meta-analysis.

Despite decades of increased research and funding, youth mentoring programs, overall, yield small effects on youth outcomes. As a result, there are growing calls for programs to utilize the mentoring relationship as context for intentional, targeted skills development, in which mentors employ targeted skills designed to match the presenting concerns of mentees. This targeted approach contrasts with the historically dominant, non-specific friendship model, which holds that a supportive relational bond-alone-promotes positive developmental change. The current study is a follow-up meta-analysis using a comprehensive dataset of all intergenerational, one-on-one mentoring program evaluations published between 1975 and 2018, investigating the comparative impact of targeted, skills-based versus non-specific, relational approaches to mentoring. Analyses of 48 mentoring studies of youth outcomes (average youth age of 12.25 years old) revealed the overall effect size of targeted programs to be more than double that of non-specific relational approaches, with significant moderator effects on academic, psychological, and social functioning. Findings suggest that youth mentoring programs can promote positive outcomes, particularly when mentors employ targeted approaches matched to the needs of their mentees.

A Two-way Street: Mentor Stress and Depression Influence Relational Satisfaction and Attachment in Youth Mentoring Relationships.

Over the past two decades, youth mentoring programs have increased in popularity as an intervention for children exposed to a range of stressful life circumstances. Such programs have been shown to promote positive youth development and reduce risk for emotional and behavioral problems; yet, the effect size of youth gains remains small. The current study examined the influence of college student mentors' history of early life stress and baseline depressive symptoms on their effectiveness in youth mentoring relationships using 340 randomized mentor-youth pairs from College Mentors for Kids, a well-established mentoring program with chapters across the United States. Hierarchical linear models revealed that mentors with higher levels of depressive symptoms reported lower relationship satisfaction and increased avoidance in the mentoring relationship. In contrast, mentors who experienced higher levels of early life stress had youth who reported greater satisfaction in the mentoring relationship and decreased relational anxiety. These findings are some of the first to examine the impact of mentor characteristics on mentor-youth relationships and highlight the importance of considering factors relevant to psychosocial functioning and emotional distress when recruiting, training, and supporting college student mentors.

The Effects of Youth Mentoring Programs: A Meta-analysis of Outcome Studies.

Mentoring programs, which pair youth with caring, non-parental adults with the goal of promoting positive youth development, are an increasingly popular strategy for early intervention with at-risk youth. However, important questions remain about the extent to which these interventions improve youth outcomes. The present study involved a comprehensive meta-analysis of all outcome studies of intergenerational, one-on-one youth mentoring programs written in the English language between 1975 and 2017, using rigorous inclusion criteria designed to align with developmental theories of youth mentoring. Analysis of 70 mentoring outcome studies, with a sample size of 25,286 youth (average age of 12 years old), yielded a statistically significant effect of mentoring programs across all youth outcomes. The observed effect size fell within the medium/moderate range according to empirical guidelines derived from universal prevention programs for youth, and was consistent with past meta-analyses of youth mentoring. Moderation analyses indicated that programs serving a larger proportion of male youth, deploying a greater percentage of male mentors or mentors with a helping profession background, and requiring shorter meetings yielded larger effect sizes, as did evaluations that relied on questionnaires and youth self-report. Taken together, these findings provide some support for the efficacy of mentoring interventions, while also emphasizing the need to remain realistic about the modest impact of these programs as currently implemented, and highlighting opportunities for improving the quality and rigor of mentoring practices.

Birds of a feather: Is matching based on shared interests and characteristics associated with longer youth mentoring relationships?

Youth mentoring practitioners and researchers have shown a growing interest in determining the ways in which mentor-youth matching practices might influence the duration and effectiveness of mentoring relationships. The current project tested whether mentor-youth similarities at baseline, in terms of demographic variables and interests in certain activities (e.g., sports, art), predicted a longer duration of mentoring relationships. Analyses used baseline and follow-up data from over 9,000 youth who participated in community-based mentoring programs in the northeastern United States, as well as their volunteer mentors. Racial and ethnic similarity between mentor and youth was predictive of longer match duration. Moreover, a shared dislike of activities was associated with longer matches than either shared interests or discordant interests in activities. Findings have important implications for determining the ways in which mentor-youth matching practices influence the length and effectiveness of mentoring relationships.

A Daily Diary Investigation of the Influence of Early Family Adversity on Social Functioning during the Transition to Adulthood.

Early life stressors are associated with maladaptive social functioning in childhood and adolescence, but it is unclear whether and how the negative interpersonal effects of stress persist into adulthood. Daily diary surveys were used to examine young adults' social behavior and mood reactivity to social stressors as a function of experiences of early family adversity. Stressful early family environments predicted more daily reassurance seeking, but not aggression, withdrawal, or positive social behavior. Early family adversity also moderated the within-person effects of social stressors on next-day mood, such that individuals with high levels of adversity had elevated next-day negative affect in response to higher than average social stress. Findings highlight the enduring impact of early adversity on social development, with implications for developing targeted policies and interventions.

How Economic Disadvantage Affects the Availability and Nature of Mentoring Relationships During the Transition to Adulthood.

Supportive nonparental adults, particularly nonfamilial adults, provide critical support during the transition to adulthood, opening doors to educational and career paths. This study examined whether economic disadvantage shapes access to these relationships. Results showed that low-income adolescents had reduced access to naturally occurring mentors, and the relationships they did form tended to be close bonds with family and friends, rather than nonfamilial adults. Their mentors were more likely to focus on practical support, and less likely to serve as role models or provide career advice. These effects of socioeconomic status on natural mentoring relationships remained evident, even when accounting for youth race/ethnicity. Findings suggest that networks of support differ depending on a youth's socioeconomic context in ways that could perpetuate social and economic inequalities.

Transdiagnostic pathways from early social stress to psychopathology: a 20-year prospective study.

BACKGROUND: Adverse family environments confer susceptibility to virtually all psychiatric problems. This study evaluated two possible models to explain this diversity of associations. Stressful family circumstances during childhood could either activate general, transdiagnostic liabilities to mental disorder or promote numerous disorder-specific liabilities. METHODS: We recruited a high-risk sample of 815 mother-offspring pairs and assessed social stressors in the family context prospectively from the perinatal period through offspring age 5. We factor analyzed offspring mental disorder diagnoses at age 20 to parse transdiagnostic and disorder-specific dimensions of psychopathology. RESULTS: Structural analyses revealed nearly equivalent prospective effects of early family stress on overarching Internalizing (ß = .30) and Externalizing (ß = .29) dimensions. In contrast, there was no evidence of disorder-specific effects. CONCLUSIONS: Social stressors early in life activate transdiagnostic, and not disorder-specific, liabilities to psychopathology. A focus on higher-order dimensions of psychopathology could accelerate etiological research and intervention efforts for stress-linked mental disorders.

Effects of mindfulness training on emotional and physiologic recovery from induced negative affect.

OBJECTIVE: Mindfulness training has been shown to improve psychological well-being and physical health. One proposed pathway for the positive effects of mindfulness training is through the development of new emotion regulation strategies, such as the ability to experience emotions by observing and accepting them without judgment. Theoretically, this should facilitate recovery from negative emotional states; however, this has rarely been examined empirically. The goal of the current study was to determine whether mindfulness training is associated with more efficient emotional and cardiovascular recovery from induced negative affect. METHODS: The current study tested emotional and cardiovascular recovery from induced negative affect during a personal recall task in women randomly assigned to 6-weeks of mindfulness training (n=39) compared to women assigned to a wait-list control condition (n=32). During baseline, task, and post-task rest, blood pressure and heart rate were monitored at fixed intervals and heart rate variability (HRV) and pre-ejection period (PEP) were monitored continuously. This study was embedded within a randomized trial that evaluated the effects of mindfulness training in a sample of younger breast cancer survivors, a group in need of access to effective psychosocial intervention as they can experience high stress, anxiety, and physical symptoms for many years in to survivorship. RESULTS: In response to the personal recall task, women in both the intervention and control groups showed significant increases in sadness, anxiety, and anger, with the intervention group reaching higher levels of sadness and anger than controls. Further, the intervention group showed a significantly steeper decline in sadness and anger, as well as steeper initial decline in diastolic blood pressure compared to women in the wait list control condition. Groups did not differ in their self-reported feelings of anxiety, or in blood pressure, heart rate, or pre-ejection period (PEP) responses to the task. The control group demonstrated an increase in heart rate variability (HRV) during the task (indexed by the root mean square of successive differences in heart rate; RMSSD) while the intervention group remained flat throughout the task. CONCLUSION: Compared to the control group, women in the intervention group experienced greater negative emotions when recalling a difficult experience related to their breast cancer, and demonstrated an efficient emotional and blood pressure recovery from the experience. This suggests that mindfulness training may lead to an enhanced emotional experience coupled with the ability to recovery quickly from negative emotional states.

Trends in Volunteer Mentoring in the United States: Analysis of a Decade of Census Survey Data.

Over the past decade, considerable resources have been devoted to recruiting volunteer mentors and expanding mentoring programs. It is unclear whether these efforts have helped to counter the broader national trends of declining volunteer rates. The current study uses data from the Volunteering Supplement of the Current Population Survey (CPS), sponsored by the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, to explore population-level trends in mentoring over the past decade. Results suggest that mentoring rates have remained relatively stable over the past decade, but that the population of mentors has changed somewhat in terms of age, ethnicity, educational background, and region of the United States. In addition, certain sectors of the mentor population show higher rates of attrition from 1 year to the next. Findings have important implications for the development of recruitment, training, and mentor support practices within mentoring organizations, as well as policies designed to meet the needs of at-risk youth in the U.S.

Prosocial Behavior Mitigates the Negative Effects of Stress in Everyday Life.

Recent theories of stress reactivity posit that, when stressed, individuals tend to seek out opportunities to affiliate with and nurture others in order to prevent or mitigate the negative effects of stress. However, few studies have tested empirically the role of prosocial behavior in reducing negative emotional responses to stress. The current analyses used daily diary data to investigate whether engaging in prosocial behavior buffered the negative effects of naturally-occurring stressors on emotional well-being. Results showed that on a given day, prosocial behavior moderated the effects of stress on positive affect, negative affect, and overall mental health. Findings suggest that affiliative behavior may be an important component of coping with stress, and indicate that engaging in prosocial behavior might be an effective strategy for reducing the impact of stress on emotional functioning.

The Impact of Youth Risk on Mentoring Relationship Quality: Do Mentor Characteristics Matter?

Although mentoring is a widely used intervention strategy, effect sizes for at-risk youth remain modest. Research is therefore needed to maximize the impact of mentoring for at-risk youth who might struggle to benefit from mentoring relationships. This study tested the hypothesis that different types of youth risk would have a negative impact on mentoring relationship quality and duration and explored whether mentor characteristics exacerbated or mitigated these negative effects. Results showed that elevated environmental stress at a youth's home and/or school predicted shorter match duration, and elevated rates of youth behavioral problems, such as poor academic performance or misconduct, predicted greater youth dissatisfaction and less positive mentor perceptions of relationship quality. Mentors with greater self-efficacy and more previous involvement with youth in their communities were able to buffer the negative effects of environmental stress on match duration. Similarly, mentors' previous involvement with youth buffered the negative effects of youth behavioral problems on mentor perceptions of relationship quality. Findings have important implications for the matching of mentors and at-risk youth in a way that improves mentoring outcomes.

Prospective associations between chronic youth sleep problems and young adult health.

OBJECTIVES: The current study investigated prospective associations between youth sleep problems across childhood and adolescence, as well as the relationship between chronic youth sleep problems and young adult health. Exploratory analyses investigated this sleep-health relationship in the context of several established risk factors, including youth depression and environmental stress. DESIGN: This project is an extension of the Mater-University Study of Pregnancy, a longitudinal study that followed more than 7000 children across early development. SETTING: Brisbane, Australia. PARTICIPANTS: Seven hundred ten mother-child dyads assessed from birth to age 20. MEASUREMENTS: We used maternal report measures to assess the persistence of youth sleep problems. We used structural equation modeling to explore the relationship between chronic maternal-reported youth sleep problems and subjective reports of young adult health quality and to assess whether associations remained when other potential health risks were included in the model. RESULTS: Path analyses revealed that sleep problems in early childhood predicted sleep problems in middle adolescence, which predicted sleep problems at age 20. Structural equation models showed that chronic youth sleep problems predicted youth health quality at age 20 (ß = .263, P < .001) over and above the effects of early adversity, chronic childhood illness, maternal depression, lifetime youth depression, and chronic youth stress. CONCLUSIONS: Chronic sleep problems can emerge in childhood and may contribute to negative health outcomes in young adulthood. Chronic youth sleep problems remain a significant predictor of poor health when tested against other known health risk factors, suggesting that sleep may be an important health intervention target.