Positive Support: Mentoring and Depression Among High-Risk Youth
Jun 1, 2006
Author(s): Bauldry, Shawn
Publisher(s): Public/Private Ventures
Issue Area(s): Children and Youth
Funder(s): Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention; U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs
Author(s): Bauldry, Shawn
Publisher(s): Public/Private Ventures
Issue Area(s): Children and Youth
Funder(s): Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention; U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs
Positive Support examines potential benefits of matching high-risk youth with faith-based mentors. Drawing on surveys and interviews with young people who participated in the National Faith-Based Initiative, we found that mentored youth were less likely to show signs of depression than the youth who were not matched with a mentor. This in turn was related to a variety of other beneficial outcomes, including handling conflict better and fewer self-reported instances of arrests. The report concludes with a consideration of the challenges of implementing a mentoring program for high-risk youth and how they might be overcome.
