Жас өспірімдерге кеңес беру: даму мен қолдау жолы

Youth mentoring is the process of matching mentors with young people who need or want a caring, responsible adult in their lives. Adult mentors are usually unrelated to the child or teen and work as volunteers through a community , school , or church based social service program. The goal of youth mentoring programs is to improve the well being of the child by providing a role model that can support the child academically, socially and/or personally. This goal can be accomplished through school work, communication, and/or activities. Goals and settings within a mentoring program vary by country because of cultural values. Although informal mentoring relationships exist, formal, high quality mentoring matches made through local or state mentoring organizations are often the most effective. According to The Encyclopedia of Informal Education:
"The classic definition of mentoring is of an older experienced guide who is acceptable to the young person and who can help ease the transition to adulthood by a mix of support and challenge. In this sense it is a developmental relationship in which the young person is inducted into the world of adulthood."

Much research has been conducted on youth mentoring with the intent of determining whether or not there are positive benefits for youth and, if so, under what conditions the positive effects are most likely to occur. The evidence is somewhat mixed, however, and studies caution against overestimating the potential effects due to the small overall magnitude of association. According to some studies, not all mentoring programs are found to have positive effects. In some cases, youth involved in mentoring relationships of short duration or infrequent interactions with their mentors experienced no benefits or were harmed in the form of lower self esteem. Even studies that demonstrated positive outcomes for youth suggested that benefits from mentoring do not always last for an extended period of time after the intervention has ended.

One method of determining how effective mentoring relationships have become is with the use of meta analysis. Meta analysis allows a researcher to synthesize several studies and has been said to provide an unbiased, objective, and quantifiable method to test for significant differences in the results found across studies. Two studies utilizing this method are presented below. In a meta analysis of 55 studies on mentoring programs, the overall effectiveness of mentoring as well as the factors relating to variation in mentoring effects were studied. Further findings indicated that effect size may be increased with the use of specific strategies and practices, such as providing continual support and structure to the mentor and relationship. It is important to note, however, that this study cannot imply causality and further research is recommended to explore this relationship. The overall effects were found to be positive with delinquency as well as with the other outcomes studied. Effects were stronger with the delinquent and aggressive outcomes, while still remaining moderate with the group measuring substance use and academic achievement. This suggests that mentoring programs are especially effective with delinquent behavior. In the meta analysis listed above, several best practices were found to increase effect sizes in mentoring programs: There is less research available for informal mentor relationships than there is for formal, but the research indicates that benefits exist for both the mentor and mentee. Published literature also indicates that "formal community based youth mentoring relationships" allow for successful intervention with children in difficult or at risk environments. Mentoring programs for youth are mentioned as having significant benefits such as lower dropout rates in high school and subsequently increased graduation rates, along with an increase of enrollment into and graduation from institutions of higher education. In turn, this improves their motivation to learn in a given subject area. Youth mentoring draws on positive theories of "development clinical psychology." Successful mentorships promote positive health through the improvement of academic education, positive self worth, and social acceptance. Likewise, mentorships can decrease high risk violent behaviors, usage of alcohol, tobacco, and drugs. There are debates about the effectiveness of youth mentoring as some claim that child development is influenced by interactions that extend beyond these relationships. Mentoring alone is not sufficient; positive development requires more than a cross age mentor. The goals of youth mentoring, however, can be simply to turn obstacles into opportunities, The mentor meets with the youth in an academic setting and facilitates school work while acting as a supportive role model. They may also play games, do crafts or partake in non academic activities. Statistics prove that school based mentoring will increase academic student involvement. The school based approach revealed improvement in the classroom and socially. Mentors are matched with a student and they work one on one with the student throughout the school year. Focusing on schoolwork, the student’s interest, and other activities. As a mentor the expectation is to be a positive role model that is supportive and encouraging. This relationship will help motivate the student to be successful in school, reducing school infractions and truancy.

"Community Based" is another approach to mentoring. Both approaches can be done in a one on one or group setting between mentee youth and paraprofessional mentors. Paraprofessionals are non parent adult mentors who are recruited or volunteer to execute certain tasks after being guided and supervised by a professional service provider. Although the many community based programs that exist today vary in design and delivery, the majority target skill sets relating to social integration, self sufficiency, and academic competence. Community engagement statistics states that mentees after mentoring programs are 55% more likely to enroll in college, 78% more likely to volunteer regularly, 90% are interested in becoming a mentor, and 130% more likely to hold leadership positions. A survey questioning 1,101 mentors through 98 mentoring programs found that school based mentoring programs had fewer contact hours than community based mentoring programs. Community based mentors also self reported to be “very close” to their mentees, while school based mentors reported to be “close”. This survey used nine factors to benchmark the developing relationships. These factors are “(1) engaging in social activities; (2) engaging in academic activities; (3) number of hours per month spent together; (4) decision making shared by mentor and mentee; (5) prematch training; (6) postmatch training; (7) mentor screening (only important relationship development in community based programs); (8) matching; and (9) age of the mentee." The conclusion of this study is that school based programs are a good compliment to community based mentoring programs, meaning that schools should strive to have a variety of mentoring programs in order to give students the best resources that fit to their needs. Youth mentoring also addresses the issue of workforce shortages since it utilizes paraprofessionals for child services where the need is high but the resources are limited. Beginning in 2019, a new form of training—Just In Time Training—was proposed to help address shortages in child services. These strategies are proposed to even work “within the context of dynamic mental health services,” as they allow for services, normally directed towards professionals, to be executed just as efficiently by individuals with less official qualifications. The traditional model is structured so that mentors and youth are paired through a formal mechanism and pairings are free to spend time together in a range of different activities and settings as to help build their relationship with one another. The most effective and successful mentoring relationships are defined by the development of trust between the mentor and the student. Studies examining such relationships show that trust is the most critical factor in determining whether the relationship will be perceived as satisfying by both parties. In order to build trust in a one on one setting, the approach of the mentor is key. Mentors who prioritize relationship or friendship building tend to be more effective than those who focus largely on goals and reforming their students. Effective mentors are likely to be characterized by having a consistent presence in their mentees’ lives, respect for their mentees’ viewpoints, greater attention for their mentees’ desires or goals, and accountability for maintaining good relations.

Small group mentoring can be beneficial in places where there is a shortage of mentors, or youth are able to learn collectively in a group setting. This works with career oriented mentoring, when the focus is to encourage future success of the individual by bringing in successful professionals as mentors. This has found to be a successful approach in The Roma Mentor Project throughout Europe; it is able to build self confidence, and social skills while also teaching the importance of Romani culture.

Research shows that youth mentorship relationships have the highest impact for "at risk students” or “disadvantaged” students. Mentoring has shown to have great academic gains for these populations that have higher risk of school failure and dropping out. Although there have been many studies that look at the impact of mentorship and the importance of the length of the mentorship relationship, there has not been many studies that look at the impact of gender in a mentoring relationship. About one third of female mentees’ mentorship was terminated earlier than males. The termination occurred before eleven months; by twelve months an estimated of 46% females had terminated their mentorship. On the other hand, males had an average of two years of mentorship. The research that has been done on gender matching in mentoring relationships has resulted in conflicting findings. For example, in a dissertation study the researcher looked at the impact that a male role model may have on “successful” African American middle school males. The study found that the gender of the role model is not the most important factor, the most important factor was that the role model is someone that has certain qualities such as leadership, accomplishments, work ethic, and creates a caring environment. On the other hand, another study looked at the differences between the mentoring relationships that men and women mentors have with their mentees and found that men and women mentor differently. They found that women mentors give more psychosocial mentoring, where as male mentors give more career mentoring. Yet another study found that natural male mentors had a significant impact on African American youth in regards to their future economic benefits. The study found that African American fatherless youth benefited the most when they had a male mentor compared to a female mentor or no mentor at all. Because of these conflicting findings on the impact of gender matching in mentorship relationships, further research needs to be done on this topic.

Youth mentoring takes place around the world, and countries take varying approaches to the concept based on values and needs of that country's youth. There are organizations such as Big Brothers Big Sisters International that have locations worldwide, as well as country specific organizations, such as Mentor Me India.

Australia has a large number of mentoring program operating across the country utilising a number of mentoring practices in school mentoring, one on one mentoring, e mentoring are some common example. Australia also has a peak body representing the youth mentoring sector known as the Australian Youth Mentoring Network or the AYMN. The AYMN works with interested youth mentoring organisations and practitioners to foster the growth and development of high quality mentoring programs for young people in Australia by providing a national base of collaboration, support, guidance and expertise. It has played a major role in building stronger mentoring practice, and performance in the field. One of the Network’s key achievements includes the creation of the National Youth Mentoring Benchmarks, where over 500 individuals from the mentoring sector contributed to the consultation process and the final product.

The Romani population is about 1.9% of the total population in Hungary, according to the 2001 census. There are 12 Million Romani across Europe, and they account for one of Europe's most vulnerable populations. Within the Romani population, there is a lack of education amongst youth accompanied by large numbers of illiteracy. Because of this trend, there was the creation of The Roma Mentor Project, which provides successful Romani adults to be role models of Romani youth. The program started in 2006, and by 2011, it spread to four other European countries with 1,400 participants. The program matches professionals in many different fields, such as government officials, professors, musicians, and media figures. These adults meets with groups of youth for two to three hours, twice a month, to influence their future decisions on education and career development. Already the program has found a shift in attitudes toward education and improvement in grades. Another mentoring program that is starting in rural India implemented by United States researches as well as Indian community members. The purpose was to help with the impoverished youth who do not have access to the same resources as youth in an urban setting. When creating the program, Indian cultural norms and limited resource access were taken into account. The focus of this mentorship program is to develop leadership, academic achievement, and spiritual development while having a community service portion among the youth.

The largest mentoring program in the United States is Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, a program for youth from ages 6–18. The organization implements both community based as well as school based mentoring, and is typically a one on one mentorship. After joining the mentoring movement, 98 percent of participants stayed in school as well as avoided gang activity, and teen pregnancy, while 85 percent of youth in the program did not use drugs. Since starting in 2005, the program has influenced over 125,000 black youths. The mentoring typically takes place in the community in a group setting to create positive relations amongst the youth. The report concluded that very few after school programs “have received the kind of comprehensive experimental evaluation necessary to make a firm recommendation about replicating the program in its entirety across the country.” However, the report singled out mentoring programs modeled after the Big Brothers Big Sisters mentoring program as a rare exception, and recommended its widespread replication.