Suchergebnisse

Drawing upon work in the fields of psychology and personal relations, Rhodes outlines a model of youth mentoring, explores the potential that exists in such relationships, and also exposes the risk of unsuccessful mentoring relationships.

AbstractAfter‐school settings are interpersonal in nature, and the quality of the relationships that are forged can directly influence youths' attendance decisions and the developmental benefits they derive. Programs should more effectively capitalize on this potential for caring adult‐staff relationships.

At the heart of afterschool programs are the relationships that form between the children and youth who participate in these programs and the adults who lead them. To be effective, adults working in afterschool settings must be able to engage youth in growth‐promoting relationships. This article identifies and describes four foundational ways of interacting with youth that foster the development of such relationships—engaging in warm and emotionally supportive connections, providing developmentally appropriate structure and support, cultivating and responding to youth initiative, and scaffolding and propelling youth learning and skill development.

AbstractWe close this volume with a final commentary from two leaders in the mentoring field. Rhodes and Spencer articulate how the contributions to this volume offer a richer, more complex rendering of relational styles and processes than has been laid out previously in the mentoring literature. They suggest that these efforts should provoke discussion and debate on how relationship styles and mentor‐youth interactions influence youth outcomes, particularly as this work continues to draw on knowledge from related fields. The authors conclude with the hope that the work presented here will inform mentoring practices in ways that help youth successfully meet the demands of and flourish in an increasingly complex world.

Includes information on understanding the state of youth development work; the world in which adolescents live; and the world in which adults function. This work is intended for both practitioners and researchers, and others interested and involved in working toward achieving positive youth development

AbstractMentoring through faith‐based programs could reach some of the most severely disadvantaged youth, yet efforts could be undermined if proselytizing occurs.

AbstractEnduring and supportive mentoring relationships can powerfully influence the course and quality of adolescent lives. As mentoring continues to expand, community agencies are implementing alternatives to the traditional one‐on‐one mentoring mode. Such efforts may help to reach youth who might otherwise fall through the cracks.

In the present study, the authors examined the role of child-related stressors in the psychological adjustment of lower-income, primarily unmarried and African American, mothers ( N = 386). All participants lived in areas affected by Hurricane Katrina, and about a third were also exposed to Hurricane Rita (30.3%, n = 117). Lacking knowledge of a child's safety during the hurricanes was a significant predictor of heightened postdisaster psychological distress and posttraumatic stress, even after controlling for demographic variables, predisaster psychological distress, evacuation timing, and bereavement. From interviews with a subset of the participants ( n = 57), we found that mothers consistently put their own needs behind those of their children. The authors recommend policies that promptly reunite mothers with missing children and support lower-income mothers in caring for their children during natural disasters and the aftermath.