Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #117521

Nikki Bellamy, PhD, Division of Knowledge Development and Systems Improvement, Sustance Abuse and Mental Health Admin/Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, Room 4-1005, 1 Choke Cherry Road, Rockville, MD 20857, 240-276-2418, nikki.bellamy@samhsa.hhs.gov and Elizabeth W. Sale, PhD, Missouri Institute of Mental Health, 5400 Arsenal Street, St. Louis, MO 63169.

Over the past decade, mentoring programs have gained great popularity in the substance abuse prevention field for promoting positive youth development. Research suggests that well-implemented mentoring programs provide youth with support, counsel, friendship, skills building, and positive role modeling. (Rhodes, Grossman, and Resch, 2003; Aseltine, Dupre, & Lamlein, 2000; Taylor, LoSciuto, Fox, Hilbert & Sonkowsky, 1999). However, this research also suggests that mentoring interventions must be well designed and implemented to be effective, and poorly implemented programs can actually be harmful to participating youth (Rhodes, 2002).

The CSAP Mentoring Youth Initiative is a large-scale, four-year longitudinal study of seven mentoring programs being implemented across the nation. Youth and caregivers were assessed at three time points for changes in substance use, social skills, and other risk and protective factors. The study used random assignment with approximately 1,250 treatment group youth and their caregivers, and 1,250 control group youth. Using repeated measures ANCOVA, we found that youth who felt their mentors were supportive, empathetic, affirming, and trustworthy improved their social skills relative to youth with less supportive mentors. However, these same youth fared no better than control group youth. Analysis of program implementation across the seven programs found that many provided inadequate training and screening of mentors, and inadequate one-on-one time with youth. These findings have extremely important implications for the implementation of adolescent mentoring programs, and suggest the urgent need for the widespread dissemination of “best practices” in mentoring to bolster those protective factors associated with adolescent substance use.

Learning Objectives:

(
• To discuss chactericteristics of the mentoring relationship from the perspective of the youth mentee (
• To identify best practices for community-based organizations to consider and adopt before implementation of a youth mentoring project

Keywords: Youth, Community Preventive Services

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation