Abstract
This evaluation explores the effectiveness of school-based mentoring as a universal prevention strategy. The impact of mentoring on students displaying risk factors is also addressed. The evaluation of YouthFriends, a school-based mentoring program, employed a pretest-posttest control group design. Students (n = 170) across five school districts provided data on eight dependent variables. At posttest, there was a statistically significant difference favoring YouthFriends over controls on sense of school membership. In addition, for students who had low scores at baseline, results indicated a statistically significant improvement unique to YouthFriends on community connectedness and goal-setting. Analyses of students’ academic performance also indicated a positive effect for those YouthFriends who had low grades at baseline.
Editors’ Strategic Implications: Important lessons are provided for school administrators and mentoring program staff and evaluators. As a universal prevention program, school-based mentoring may produce few (and small) short-term effects. A greater understanding of the effects of dosage and quality of the mentoring is needed as we seek to evaluate the efficacy of school-based mentoring across a variety of student risk levels.
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Portwood, S.G., Ayers, P.M., Kinnison, K.E. et al. YouthFriends: Outcomes from a School-Based Mentoring Program. J Primary Prevent 26, 129–188 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10935-005-1975-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10935-005-1975-3