"We're in this together:" A Study on Mutuality in Youth Mento ring Relationships

Abstract

As the field of youth mentoring grows, the need for research become more and more necessary. There is a great demand to analyze youth men to ring relationships and their efficacy. It is important to understand how these youth mentoring relationships affect young peoples' lives. My research attempts to discover a greater understanding on not only the influence of youth mentoring on the mentees' lives but also on the mentors' lives. Through interviews and surveys conducted at the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative, I gathered significant data from both the mentor and mentee. Results were consist with literature on youth mentoring relationships, which explains that non-relative adult relationships do play an important role a young persons' development. The results found significant evidence that mentors also gain positive development from mentoring relationships. This evidence can be tied to feminist literature on mutuality. Inconsistencies among theories of youth mentoring and practices by mentoring programs were found as well. Further studies in the field of youth mentoring are very important.