This article reports on a 1-year longitudinal study of developmental mentoring, a school-based intervention that enlists high school students as mentors to elementary school students.
Concerns about adolescent risk-taking and school underachievement remain high. Such problems are increasingly viewed as products of students' disconnectedness from school, teachers, peers, and parents. One response to this crisis of disconnection is to develop programs that promote youths' sense of belonging and keep them connected during periods of transition. The findings from this study suggest that the developmental mentoring program promoted conventional connectedness to parents, school, and the future, and that program effects on spelling achievement scores were mediated by maintenance of parental connectedness into middle school. Implications for school programs to involve families in promoting connectedness and achievement in schools are discussed. (publisher abstract modified)
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