An examination of outcomes on adolescents and youth in the Creative Mentoring program

Abstract

Adolescents and youth face a multitude of challenges as they navigate their teen years. Among these challenges are low levels of self-esteem and wavering enthusiasm towards academics and school. School-based mentoring programs have been an increasingly popular means of intervention to curb these challenges. The field has seen extensive research in examining a variety of programs, from individual school-based mentoring programs to nationally known programs such as Big Brothers Big Sisters. However, there has been no study to date that has examined the impact of a statewide mentoring initiative. Creative Mentoring, a statewide mentoring initiative in Delaware, provides mentoring in school-based programs throughout Delaware. Upon examination, it was found that the longer students participated in the Creative Mentoring program, the higher the students’ levels of self-esteem and the more positively mentors influenced students’ perception of academics. Girls, in particular, experienced higher levels of self-esteem as a result of participating in Creative Mentoring. These findings support previous research that school-based mentoring programs are effective and necessary. Additionally, the findings suggest that there is a positive correlation between students who participated in the Creative Mentoring program in 2013-2014 and the students’ levels of self-esteem and their perceptions of their academics.