The Utility of Mentoring Homeless Adolescents: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Background: Despite the intuitive appeal and popularity of mentoring programs, mentoring has shown only limited success for positively impacting children’s psychosocial functioning. Furthermore, we were not able to identify a study that examined the potential utility of mentoring for homeless adolescents. Objective: The purpose of this pilot study was to examine the impact of mentoring among a group of homeless adolescents who were also receiving substance abuse treatment. Methods: This pilot study examined the impact of mentoring among homeless adolescents (n = 90) between the ages of 14 and 20 years who also received substance abuse treatment. A longitudinal design was used in which adolescents were assessed at baseline, 3 months, and following the completion of treatment at 6 months postbaseline. Results: Findings showed that adolescents with a history of physical or sexual abuse attended more mentoring sessions. Also, mentoring in addition to treatment was associated with a decrease in problem consequences associated with substance use. However, more mentoring with fewer treatment sessions was associated with an increase in internalizing behaviors. Only these two outcomes were associated with mentoring. Conclusions and Scientific Significance: While not providing resounding support for mentoring, this study suggests that examining the mentor/mentee relationship may be a fruitful line of future research given that significant variability among the mentor/mentee pairs was noted for some outcomes of interest.

• adolescent substance abuse
• mentoring
• multilevel models

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This work has been supported by Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) grant no. K1TI12503A.

Declaration of Interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.