Tailoring Mentoring to Youth Needs: A Secondary Data Analysis on OJJDP’s Mentoring Enhancement Demonstration Program

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Mentor kneeling and talking to young boy

Mentoring can be a vital support for some youth, especially in marginalized communities, offering a caring and supportive relationship with an unrelated adult. Research shows that mentoring relationships can improve youth’s social competence, cognitive skills, and emotional well-being, and reduce mental health, behavioral, and academic problems.

AIR’s randomized controlled trial on youth mentoring that concluded in 2018 included more than 2,000 mentor-mentee pairs. We will benefit from this rich dataset to contribute to knowledge of evidence-based mentoring strategies that can guide mentoring programs in their practices.

- Dr. Manolya Tanyu, AIR Senior Researcher

Despite the popularity of youth mentoring in some communities, the average size of youth benefits in research studies is typically small—some youth make big gains while others may not benefit at all in the measured outcomes. This pattern highlights diversity among young people who participate in mentoring programs (e.g., in their social, emotional, relational, and academic needs) and in the approaches mentors use in their interactions with them. 

This study investigated whether mentor strategies that are intentionally responsive to youth’s specific needs, or tailored mentoring, could yield stronger positive outcomes even if the program may not have a targeted approach.
 

AIR's Data Analysis

AIR used a rich dataset collected during its 2012-18 evaluation of the Mentoring Enhancement Demonstration Program (MEDP). AIR researchers partnered with mentoring scholars from the Herrera Consulting Group, LLC; Portland State University; and Suffolk University, and received funding from the National Institute of Justice.

Researchers examined the mentoring relationships of 1,741 mentor-mentee pairs representing 30 programs across the U.S. They used descriptive and path analyses with data from multiple measures collected from mentors, youth, and their caregivers prior to being matched and at around 12 months into the mentoring relationship.
 

Key Findings

For more details, view our Technical Report and Practice Brief

  • A substantial proportion of youth who come to non-targeted mentoring programs carry heavy baggage—clinical levels of conduct or emotional problems, and low GPAs. In our study of the 30 MEDP programs, one in four youth started their mentoring relationship with clinical levels of conduct or emotional problems, and one in ten met or exceeded clinical levels of need in both areas.
  • Mentors matched with youth who had higher levels of behavioral, emotional, or academic needs at baseline were more likely to tailor their mentoring activities to address the youth need. While most mentors aim to make their mentees feel happier, fewer adapt their interactions to target specific youth needs (i.e., behavioral, emotional, relational, academic).
  • Relationship quality was an important ingredient in effective tailored mentoring. The link between tailoring activities to youth’s academic needs and improvements in grades was stronger when youth reported feeling closer to their mentors. By contrast, youth with high levels of emotional and conduct problems did not feel significantly closer to mentors who tried to address their particular needs. 
  • Our study yielded mixed findings on the effectiveness of tailored mentoring, depending on the type of youth need. Tailored mentoring was linked with improvements in mentees’ academic needs, but not their behavioral or emotional needs. For academics, a tailored approach seemed to boost impacts at 12 months into the mentoring relationship, especially in the context of a strong relationship. We did not detect a similar pattern for youth with emotional or behavioral needs. 
     

Study Takeaways

For tailored mentoring in non-targeted programs to be effective, the circumstances may need to be right—for example, when academics is the pressing need, when the match has had time to establish a strong relationship, and when achieving a given goal is valued by the youth and caregiver. Without these foundational elements, a rigid focus on a given need may do more harm than good. 

We found support for using tailored mentoring to address youth’s academic needs, especially in the context of strong mentor-mentee bonds.

Our findings suggest caution when using tailored mentoring with youth with high behavioral needs. Youth with behavioral needs may be more responsive to no focus or very limited discussions on the topic. A mentor, being the one adult who does not focus on the youth’s behavioral struggles, may be able to establish a bond with the youth and yield benefits at a later time.

Given our findings, programs might review their key program components to enhance intentionality in recruiting, matching, training, and supporting mentors to be more focused on tailoring their interaction to youth needs to achieve stronger outcomes. However, programs should also be guided by the core essence of mentoring, which can only thrive in the context of a supportive and nurturing connection between mentor and mentee.


This project was supported by Award No. 15PNIJ-22-GG-01425-MENT, awarded by the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of Justice.