Does Natural Mentoring Matter? A Multilevel Meta‐analysis on the Association Between Natural Mentoring and Youth Outcomes

In this meta‐analytic review, we examined the relation between natural mentoring and youth outcomes in four domains: academic and vocational functioning, social‐emotional development, physical health, and psychosocial problems. Natural mentoring relationships are thought to foster positive youth development and buffer against the risks associated with the tumultuous years of adolescence. Two separate meta‐analyses were conducted on the presence of a natural mentor and the quality of the natural mentoring relationship, including thirty studies from 1992 to present. The findings indicated that the presence of a natural mentor was significantly associated with positive youth outcomes (r = .106). A larger effect size was found for the quality of the natural mentoring relationship in terms of relatedness, social support, and autonomy support (r = .208). The largest effect sizes were found for social‐emotional development and academic and vocational functioning. Risk‐status (e.g., teenage mothers, homeless youth, youth in foster care, and youth of alcoholic parents) did not moderate the relation between presence and quality of natural mentoring relationships and youth outcomes, which may indicate that natural mentors are generally beneficial for all youth regardless of risk‐status. Implications for theory and practice concerning the quality of the natural mentoring relationship are discussed.     

Structure factorielle et qualités psychométriques du questionnaire d’auto-évaluation pour adolescents (Youth Self-Report) d’Achenbach et Rescorla

IntroductionRecent research on the prognostic significance of subthreshold comorbid disorders highlighted the need for instruments allowing for the comprehensive exploration of symptomatology of adolescents.ObjectiveTo verify the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Achenbach and Rescorla's Youth Self-Report French translation, which allows this investigation.MethodWe had 1450 adolescents 11–17- year old (747 girls) complete the YSR in secondary schools in the Paris metropolitan area.ResultsConfirmatory Factor Analyses and Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling supported the 8-syndrome structure. However, since ESEM allows cross-loadings, the number of indicators for each factor in the ESEM models is much higher than in the CFA models. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability were satisfactory, and multigroup analyses confirmed the metric and scalar invariance across age and gender of most of the items examined (70 out of 89). We can therefore affirm that girls score lower on Social problems than boys, 15–17-year-old adolescent score higher on Thought problems, Attention problems, and Rule-Breaking Behavior than the younger, and these differences are substantive and independent of differential item functioning.ConclusionThese results are likely to encourage the use of YSR in research and clinical practice with French-speaking adolescents.     

Career calling and team member proactivity: The roles of living out a calling and mentoring

With the growing interest in the joint effects of individual and contextual factors in predicting team member proactivity, this paper examines why and when pursuing one's career calling can lead to team member proactivity. Drawing on the Work as a Calling Theory, we propose that “living out a calling” explains why employees' perceived career calling positively relates to team member proactivity and especially when the employee receives high levels of mentoring support. Our hypotheses are tested using a multisource and time-lagged study design with a sample of 296 dyads of Chinese employees and their direct supervisors. We found support for the mediating role of living out a calling (Time 2) in the positive relationship between perceiving a calling (Time 1) and team member proactivity (Time 3). Mentoring (Time 2) moderated the perceiving a calling and living out a calling link such that when employees received more mentoring, the relationship was positive, whereas under lower levels of mentoring, the relationship was negative. Similarly, the indirect relationship between perceiving a calling and team member proactivity through living out a calling was positive at higher levels of mentoring, but the relationship was negative at lower levels of mentoring.     

Basic psychological need frustration scale: Adaptation and validation to active commuting to school in Spanish children and adolescents

Based on self-determination theory (SDT), the aims of this study were to adapt the Psychological Need Thwarting Scale to active commuting to and from school, as well as to gather information about validity and reliability of the Basic Psychological Need Frustration Scale in Active Commuting to and from School (BPNFS-ACS). A total of 285 children and adolescents, aged 10–17 years, participated (49.47 % girls; M_age = 12.88, SD_age = 2.16). Need satisfaction and frustration, as well as motivation for ACS were measured. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis supported the 12-item three-factor correlated model, which was invariant across gender and age. Convergent validity was met with suitable values for average variance extracted. Discriminant validity was obtained by acceptable values for the heterotrait–monotrait ratio of correlations and the correlations among the three latent factors. Reliability was also supported by adequate scores on Cronbach’s alpha, Raykov’s coefficient, and intra-class correlation coefficient. Criterion validity was evidenced by a negative prediction from need frustration to active commuting to school, and a positive association of need satisfaction with active commuting to school. Results support the use of the BPNFS-ACS for the purpose of gaining deeper insight into the “dark side” of motivation for active school transport among Spanish children and adolescents.     

Successful Postgraduate Placement Experiences: What is the Influence of Job and Supervisor Characteristics?

We know little about what determines an effective placement experience, yet vocational placements are an integral part of many professional degree programmes. The aim of this research was to examine the influence of job (task variety, task identity, task significance, feedback, and autonomy) and supervisor (relationship quality and mentoring) characteristics on placement outcomes. The findings were tested on samples from two professions for which placement were a compulsory part of their course. Sample 1 consisted of 266 undergraduate nurses, and sample 2 consisted of 176 postgraduate psychologists. The findings showed that job and supervisor characteristics explained unique variance in professional development and placement satisfaction. Of the five job characteristics examined, skill variety, feedback from the job, and task significance influenced placement outcomes. Mentoring emerged as the most important supervisor characteristic that was associated with professional development and placement satisfaction, and to a slightly less extent, supervisor–student relationship quality was also important. The research and practical implications of the findings were discussed.     

Sustaining and Expanding Systems of Care to Provide Mental Health Services for Children, Youth and Families Across America

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has been instrumental in supporting the development and implementation of systems of care to provide services to children and youth with serious mental health conditions and their families. Since 1993, 173 grants have been awarded to communities in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, Guam, the District of Columbia, and 21 American Indian/Alaska Native communities. The system of care principles of creating comprehensive, individualized services, family-driven and youth-guided care and cultural and linguistic competence, supported by a well-trained and competent workforce, have been successful in transforming the field of children's mental health and facilitating the integration of child-serving systems. This approach has achieved positive outcomes at the child and family, practice and system levels, and numerous articles have been published using data collected from system of care communities, demonstrating the effectiveness of this framework. This article will describe lessons learned from implementing the system of care approach, and will discuss the importance of expanding and sustaining systems of care across the country.     

Work and psychiatric illness in Aotearoa/New Zealand: implications for career practice

ABSTRACT

This paper aims to examine the influence of Māori culture upon psychiatric service provision in Aotearoa/New Zealand and the implications of this for career counselling of people with experience of mental illness in Aotearoa/New Zealand. The research explored the experiences of a group of women in Aotearoa/New Zealand who have been diagnosed with a psychiatric illness, with the aim of gaining some understanding about how they negotiate issues around diagnosis, recovery and resilience development and employment. The women interviewed for the study ranged in age from 17 to late 60s. They displayed academic ability ranging from literacy issues to postdoctoral experience. Their psychiatric illnesses ranged from single episodes to chronic lifetime conditions and from depression to psychotic bi-polar disorder. Their occupations ranged from unemployed status to an acting CEO. All but one of the women identified as Pākehā/tauiwi. One woman had Māori heritage but had been adopted at birth by Pākehā adoptive parents and had no knowledge of her Māori whakapapa [genealogy; descent lines; ancestry] until later in her adult life. The key idea that emerged was the importance of mentors in vocational settings, and the helpfulness of Māori-focused group and family wellness models for renegotiating vocational identity when suffering from a psychiatric illness. Implications for career practitioners are discussed.     

Effects of a cognitive specific imagery intervention on the soccer skill performance of young athletes: Age group comparisons

Objectives

The primary purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of a cognitive specific (CS) imagery intervention on the soccer skill performance of young athletes aged 7-14 years and determine if performance varied with age.

Design

Participants were 143 soccer athletes belonging to 16 different teams. Teams were randomly assigned to either a cognitive specific (CS) or motivational general-arousal imagery intervention.

Methods

Athletes were administered the SIQ-C and tested on the soccer skill to determine baseline performance. Following their imagery intervention, athletes were tested on the same soccer skill, and completed the SIQ-C a second time.

Results

The results indicated that only the younger athletes (7-10 years) receiving CS imagery performed faster following their intervention. Moreover, only the 7-8 year old athletes in the CS imagery condition significantly increased their use of CS imagery over time.

Conclusions

These findings suggest that young athletes who use CS imagery will benefit from a CS imagery intervention, thus implying that mental skills training should begin at a young age if athletes are to maximize the benefits of such training.     

Male Violence Toward Females: Victim and Aggressor Variables

Two studies investigated the effect of exposure to psychology on male and female college students' pcrceptions of the truthfulness of psychologists as researchers. Study I (N # 72) compared the perceptions of freshmen in general psychology courses at the beginning and the end of the semester. Study II (N # 70) compared the perceptions of upperclassmen who had had no psychology courses with upperclassmen who had had at least five psychology courses. Both studies found that students with training in psychology perceived psychologists to be significantly less truthful than students with no training in psychology.     

Sudden gains as a long-term predictor of treatment improvement among children in community mental health organizations

ObjectiveSudden gains have been described as rapid, sizeable changes observed between treatment sessions and have been associated with improved treatment outcome in adults. The current study examined weekly sudden gains among children seeking treatment in the community mental health setting.MethodParticipants were 161 children (age M = 10.58, SD = 1.73; 69.6% male; 47.8% Caucasian) and their parents who were randomized to one of three treatment modalities and were administered weekly and quarterly assessments throughout treatment.ResultsWhen idiographic (youth- and parent-identified “top problems”) and nomothetic measures (standardized checklists) were used to calculate sudden gains (i.e., gain must be large: in absolute terms, relative to prior session, and relative to changes in prior and subsequent sessions), 20–42% of participants experienced at least one sudden gain during treatment. Most sudden gains occurred early in treatment, and session content of relaxation was associated with sudden gain presence. Using a modified Bonferonni correction, sudden gains predicted overall symptom levels at final assessment (i.e., last assessment obtained following post-treatment) even after controlling for pre-treatment symptom levels and magnitude of the overall gain from pre- to post-treatment.ConclusionsSuddenness of gains may have a direct effect on long-term treatment outcome among children in the community.