Mentoring: A Promising Approach for Involving At-Risk Youth in 4-H

Introduction

Many youth in our country are at risk of not developing into responsible, contributing adults. To minimize the risk of negative outcomes for youth, programs can focus on reducing risk factors, increasing protective factors, or ideally both (Bogenschneider, Small, & Riley, 1990). Some risk factors, such as family status, ethnicity, poverty, or neighborhood setting, are difficult to change, but protective factors can often be enhanced to offset the effects of persistent risk factors.

Protective factors are those personal characteristics or resources that can help prevent youth from engaging in delinquency and/or drug use (NIDA Notes, 1996). One of the strongest protective factors for youth at risk for negative outcomes is interaction with responsible, caring adults who serve as positive role models (Benson, 1997; Rhodes, 2002; Werner & Smith, 1992). Such adults can teach the youth new skills, foster new abilities, and provide new opportunities and experiences.

Extension's youth development program, 4-H, has a proven track record of providing positive role models for youth and helping youth become contributing members of society using a "learn by doing" approach (The National 4-H Web). However, many at-risk youth do not participate in 4-H or other community-based programs. This article describes a program to reach these underserved youth through an Extension-sponsored mentoring program that includes 4-H activities.

Youth/Adult Relationships

Most, if not all, intervention programs for at-risk youth recognize adult interaction as a critical factor for positive youth outcomes and include it as a program component in some way. Adults may serve as role models, educators, authority figures, or counselors. In fact, one of the five critical resources in America's Promise, founded by former Secretary of State, Colin L. Powell, is for communities to "provide all young people with sustained adult relationships through which they experience support, care, guidance, and advocacy" (America's Promise-Alliance For Youth, 2000).

4-H Involvement, a Positive Influence

4-H youth development programs provide the learning opportunities, relationships, and support for youth to help them acquire the life skills necessary to meet the challenges of adolescence and adulthood. The 4-H youth development model is based on experiential education opportunities that help youth become competent, caring, confident, connected, and contributing citizens of character (National 4-H Headquarters, 2002).

Research conducted on 5th, 7th, and 9th grade students in 22 counties by Montana State University Extension and replicated by University of Idaho Extension indicated that while most youth are involved in some type of after-school programming, 11- 17% of youth studied are not involved in any out-of-school activities or programs (Idaho 4-H Impact Study, 2003; Montana 4-H Research Summary, 2003). Youth not involved in youth programs are more likely to be at-risk for delinquent behavior, academic failure, and family challenges (Benson, 1997).

Youth/Adult Relationships through Mentoring

One effective way to reach these underserved at-risk youth is by establishing a positive adult/youth relationship through mentoring. The National Mentoring Partnership defines mentors as adults who, along with parents, provide young people with support, counsel, friendship, reinforcement, and constructive examples. They are good listeners, people who care, and people who want to help youth bring out their strengths (National Mentoring Partnership, 2004). Mentors help youth by creating learning opportunities and by applying learned skills to life situations over an extended period of time (Dondero, 1997).

Mentors have been shown to help youth increase their self-confidence and decrease their delinquent behaviors (McLearn, Colasanto, Schoen, & Shapiro, 1998). In their National sample of over 1,000 mentors, McLearn and colleagues found 62% of the participating mentors reported they were effective in helping the youth overcome negative feelings about themselves and 50% reported they helped the youth decrease the amount they skipped school and how often they were in trouble at school. Nearly half of the mentors felt they had helped decrease the amount of trouble the youth was in outside of school, had helped the youth improve their grades, and/or decrease their level of substance abuse (McLearn, et al, 1998.). The mentors also indicated they had assisted the youth with other problems the youth wanted to discuss, including family and friends, sexual activity, running away from home, abuse, or eating disorders.

Other studies on mentoring using objective indicators have also shown positive outcomes in reducing problem behaviors and fostering positive development. The strongest evidence to date comes from a large controlled study of youth in Big Brothers/Big Sisters, which showed that youth who had a mentor had fewer problem behaviors and improved academic performance compared to youth who did not have a mentor (Grossman & Tierney, 1998).

Utah's Youth and Families with Promise Program

Utah's Youth and Families with Promise (YFP) mentoring program is guided by America's Promise and the Developmental Assets outlined by the Search Institute (Benson, 1997). The purpose of Utah's Youth and Families with Promise (YFP) program is to prevent juvenile delinquency and youth violence in 10-14 year-old youth referred by the schools and juvenile courts because of academic and behavioral problems.

Youth are matched with young-adult mentors who use culturally appropriate, early intervention strategies designed to increase developmental assets through the mentoring relationship. Youth and mentors who also participate in 4-H use curricula and activities to help the youth gain new life skills by completing requirements for one or more 4-H projects such as wood working, art, photography, foods, and nutrition.

Youth are also matched with grandmentors, who often become resources to the parent(s) and participate with the youth and his or her family at monthly Family Night Out (FNO) activities. FNO activities are provided so the entire family can participate together in fun, recreational experiences followed by a short "debriefing" of their experience together. Themes for each FNO ensure that each event includes time for family members to be engaged in meaningful experiential activities that will support an increase in family bonding.

Effective collaborations with local community organizations have also been a key to program success and have been facilitated by the involvement of community leaders and parents on advisory boards in each county. The program was begun by Utah State University Extension in 1994 and is administered by local Extension Agents in most of Utah's 29 counties.

Youth Outcomes for YFP Participants

During the 2003-2004 academic year, 686 youth and their families participated in YFP, and 520 young adult and 86 grand-mentors worked with these youth and their families. Youth enrolled in YFP for the 2003-2004 school year were evaluated using the post-then-pre method (Rockwell & Kohn, 1989), with 311 youth and 274 parents completing surveys. In previous years, evaluation has also included focus groups of parents and of mentors, and individual interviews with randomly selected youth. These multiple evaluation methods have yielded consistent findings about the effectiveness of the program, increasing our confidence in the findings from the post-then-pre method.

Youth survey respondents were asked to rate themselves on items related to their levels of academic achievement, social competency, family bonds, and community attachment after having been in the program for at least 6 months. Parents were also asked to rate their participating youth on the same items, in addition to a self-rating on their level of parental efficacy. While covering their answers to the first set of questions, youth and parents were then asked to think back to before they began the program and rate themselves on the same items.

Thus, data collected at post-test also included a retrospective report of pre-program attitudes and behaviors. Data were self-reported and included items based on the Search Institute's Developmental Asset Model (Benson, 1997) for academic achievement, social competence, and community attachment. Items on family bonding were taken from the Family Profile II (Lee et al., 1997) and items on parental efficacy were developed specifically for this survey.

Items were coded to form scales, and internal consistency reliability coefficients for each scale were calculated. Cronbach Alpha's for the scales were as follows: academic achievement (youth alpha = .78 and parent alpha = .89); social competence (youth alpha = .86 and parent alpha = .90); community attachment (youth alpha = .62); family bonding (youth alpha = .93 and parent alpha = .93); and parental efficacy (parent alpha = .89).

Retrospective pretest scores were subtracted from posttest scores to calculate a mean change score. Paired sample t-tests were computed on each scale. The results, based on the reports of both the youth and their parents, indicate that youth who participated in the program demonstrated significant improvement in the three primary goal areas: academic achievement, social competency, and positive family bonds (Table 1). In addition, there were also significant improvements in the secondary program goals of increasing youth's levels of attachment to their community and helping parents be more effective parents.

Mentoring and 4-H

Although the self-report survey data from participant youth and their parents' revealed that youth who participated in YFP mentoring experienced significant improvement in the primary and secondary goal areas, the question remains as to what difference participating in both mentoring and 4-H has on positive youth outcomes compared to mentoring alone. To answer this question, we analyzed 4-H and mentoring dosage data provided by the youth mentors and YFP site coordinators at each site.

In analyzing the effects of participating in 4-H and/or mentoring on youths' and parents' perceptions of youth academic achievement, social competency, and family bonding, as well as youths' perceptions of greater community attachment and parents' perceptions of greater parental efficacy, we found some interesting differences. Independent samples t-tests revealed only one significant correlation between a youth's level of 4-H participation and the variables mentioned above. Specifically, youth 4-H participation was significantly correlated with youth perceptions of increased family bonds (p < .05, two-tailed). However, independent samples t-tests revealed five significant correlations between a youth's level of participation in a mentoring relationship and the variables mentioned above. Specifically, a youth's level of participation in a mentoring relationship was significantly correlated with their perceptions of their academic achievement, social competency, and family bonding, as well as a parent's perceptions of their youth's social competency and family bonding, all at the (p < .05, two-tailed) level.

Therefore, for this sample, mentoring alone seems to have a stronger influence on improving the lives of youth on the major program emphases (improve youth academic achievement, enhance youth social competency, and supporting positive family bonds) than 4-H participation alone. However, when a youth's levels of participation in 4-H and a mentoring relationship are analyzed simultaneously, seven significant correlations (p < .05, two-tailed) emerge. Specifically, significant positive correlations existed with both youths' and parents' perceptions of youth academic achievement, social competency, and family bonding, in addition to youths' perceptions of increased levels of community attachment.

Summary and Conclusions

Youth/adult relationships can be influential in preventing anti-social behaviors in youth. Mentoring programs are a proven way of reaching at-risk youth who are less likely to participate in structured youth programs. By combining 4-H with mentoring, Utah's Youth and Families with Promise program is an effective way to help at-risk youth strengthen the protective factors of academic achievement, social competence, family bonds, and community attachment.

Interestingly, parents also reported an increase in their sense of being competent parents. This may be due to their participation in experiential family activities and the increased level of support they had in parenting their at-risk youth from the youth's mentor(s). As their youth started to show improvements, their enjoyment of parenting and interest in spending time with their youth was positively affected as well.

Implications for Extension Programming

Mentoring is a proven strategy for reaching youth who don't normally join formal youth groups such as 4-H. Combining mentoring and 4-H can help Extension professionals better serve at-risk and underserved groups of youth by involving them with caring adults. Extension professionals can also partner with existing mentoring programs to offer 4-H curricula and activities to the at-risk youth these programs serve. Many mentored youth may then choose to transition to group involvement in 4-H or other structured community programs, thus increasing their likelihood of positive outcomes.

References

Alliance For Youth. (2003). America's promise: The five promises. Retrieved January 10, 2003 from http://www.americaspromise.org/

Benson, P. L. (1997). All kids are our kids. San Fancisco: Jossey-Bass.

Bogenschneider, K., Small, S., & Riley, D. (1990). An ecological, risk focused approach for addressing youth at risk issues. Paper presented at the Extension Youth-at-Risk Summit, Chevy Chase, MD, National 4-H Council, September, 1990.

Dondero, G. M. (1997). Mentors: Beacons of hope. Adolescence, 32, 881-886.

Grossman, J.B., & Tierney, J.P. (1998). Does mentoring work? An impact study of the Big Brothers Big Sisters Program. Evaluation Review, 22(3), 403-426.

Idaho 4-H Impact Study (2003). Executive summary. University of Idaho Extension.

Lee, T.R., Burr, W.R., Beutler, I., Yorgason, F., Harker, H.B., & Olsen, J.A. (1997). The family profile II: A self-scored, brief family assessment tool. Psychological Reports, 81, 467-477.

Montana 4-H Research Summary (2003). Research findings show the impact of 4-H. Montana State University Extension Service.

McLearn, K.T., Colasanto, D., Schoen, C., & Shapiro, M.Y. (1998). Mentoring matters: A national study of adults mentoring young people. In J.B. Grossman (Ed.), Contemporary issues in mentoring (pp. 66-83). Philadelphia, PA: Public/Private Ventures.

National 4-H Headquarters (2002). FY 2002 facts in brief. Retrieved March 12, 2004 from http://www.national4-hheadquarters.gov/

National Mentoring Partnership (2004). Become a Mentor. Retrieved April 19, 2004 from http://www.mentoring.org/

NIDA notes (1996). Protective factors can buffer high-risk youths from drug use. Vol. 11, No. 3, May/June 1996. Retrieved April 19, 2004 from http://www.drugabuse.gov/NIDA_Notes/NNVol11N3/Protective.html

Rhodes, J.E. (2002). Stand by me: The risk and rewards of mentoring today's youth. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Rockwell, S.K. & Kohn, H. (1989). Post-then-pre evaluation. Journal of Extension [On-line], 27 (2). Available at: http://www.joe.org/joe/1989summer/a5.html

The National 4-H Web (2004). What is 4-H? Retrieved April 20, 2004 from http://www.4-h.org/info/whatis.php3

Werner, E.E., & Smith, R. S. (1992). Overcoming the odds: High risk children from birth to adulthood. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Chapters 1 & 10.

Youth and Families with Promise (2004). YFP Fact Sheet 2004 & http://extension.usu.edu/yfp/ About YFP. Utah State University Extension.