Mentoring programs to affect delinquency and associated outcomes of youth at risk: A comprehensive meta-analytic review

Objectives

To conduct a meta-analytic review of selective and indicated mentoring interventions for effects for youth at risk on delinquency and key associated outcomes (aggression, drug use, academic functioning). We also undertook the first systematic evaluation of intervention implementation features and organization and tested for effects of theorized key processes of mentor program effects.

Methods

Campbell Collaboration review inclusion criteria and procedures were used to search and evaluate the literature. Criteria included a sample defined as at risk for delinquency due to individual behavior such as aggression or conduct problems or environmental characteristics such as residence in a high-crime community. Studies were required to be random assignment or strong quasi-experimental design. Of 163 identified studies published from 1970–2011, 46 met criteria for inclusion.

Results

Mean effects sizes were significant and positive for each outcome category (ranging from d?=?0.11 for academic achievement to d?=?0.29 for aggression). Heterogeneity in effect sizes was noted for all four outcomes. Stronger effects resulted when mentor motivation was professional development but not by other implementation features. Significant improvements in effects were found when advocacy and emotional support mentoring processes were emphasized.

Conclusions

This popular approach has significant impact on delinquency and associated outcomes for youth at risk for delinquency. While evidencing some features may relate to effects, the body of literature is remarkably lacking in details about specific program features and procedures. This persistent state of limited reporting seriously impedes understanding about how mentoring is beneficial and ability to maximize its utility.     

Reconnecting Systems Maintenance with Social Justice: A Critical Role for Conflict Resolution

With roots in both the field of labor-management negotiation and the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, practitioners and theorists of conflict resolution have been guided by two main theories concerning the objectives of alternative dispute resolution. On the one hand is the objective of systems maintenance, with an emphasis on stability and rational decision making. On the other hand is the objective of social justice, which emphasizes changing social institutions and organizations to support the protection of basic human rights and needs. This article analyzes the assumptions of both objectives and concludes with recommendations for how to make the goals of systems maintenance and social justice mutually supporting.     

Youth Supplying Tobacco to Other Minors: Evaluating Individual and Town-Level Correlates

The present study employed multilevel random-effects regression analyses to model individual and community correlates of youth supplying tobacco to other minors. Data from 8486 youth in 40 Midwestern junior high and high schools were examined. Results indicate community support for tobacco-possession laws was associated with lower likelihood of youth supplying tobacco to minors. Individual attitudes supporting tobacco possession laws were also associated with lower likelihood of supplying tobacco. Recent smoking, using a social source or purchasing tobacco in the past month, successfully purchasing tobacco during the last attempt to buy it, and having friends who use tobacco were associated with an increased likelihood of supplying tobacco to minors. Results also suggest that purchasing tobacco in the past month or being successful during the last attempt to buy it dramatically increase the odds of supplying tobacco among Never and Past Smokers. Implications of these findings are presented.