Everything is okay and everything will be okay; Mentors supporting mentees’ cognitive emotion regulation strategies to promote positive youth development
Year: 2022
Type: dissertation
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Positive youth development (PYD) models and frameworks provide an overview of youth \nstrengths and resources that direct young people towards positive developmental trajectories. \nAs one popular context for promoting PYD, youth mentoring aims to promote positive \noutcomes for youth by facilitating supportive relationships through both formal and natural \nmentoring approaches. This thesis was designed to investigate an overlooked, but potentially \nimportant, developmental process that may be facilitated through effective mentoring support: \nmentees’ development of cognitive emotion regulation skills. Consequently, this doctoral \nthesis examined: (a) whether different types of mentoring interactions support differentially \ninfluence positive developmental and well-being outcomes for participating mentees; (b) \nwhether the mentees’ use of adaptive or non-adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies \nmediates the relationship between the different types of mentoring interactions and the \nmentees’ developmental outcomes; and (c) how mentors support their mentees’ cognitiveemotional \nregulation skills when their mentees encounter stressful circumstances. \nUsing a multi method research design, this research was divided into two studies, a \n‘Mentee Study’ and a ‘Mentor Study’. In the ‘Mentee Study’, a cross-sectional online survey \nwas conducted with a total of 300 mentees across New Zealand. Structural equation modelling \nrevealed differences in the effectiveness of goal-directed and relational-focused mentoring \ninteractions of mentoring relationships on favourable and unfavourable youth outcomes. \nSpecifically, the relational-focused interaction was positively associated with mentees’ assets \nof support, empowerment, and positive values, as described in the Search Institute’s \nDevelopmental Assets framework. Moreover, mentoring that was characterised by high levels \nof relational support was associated with lower levels of mentees’ depression. In contrast, \nmentoring characterised by high levels of goal-directed interactions was associated with higher \nlevels of mentee depressive symptoms and lower empowerment. \nThe mediation analysis revealed that the relational-focused mentoring interaction was \nnot associated with mentees’ use of cognitive emotion regulation strategies in order to promote \ntheir positive outcomes and lessen negative outcomes. In contrast, goal-directed mentoring \ninteraction was more likely to influence mentees’ use of ‘replanning and reappraisal’, ‘putting \ninto perspective’, and ‘acceptance’. The only favourable and significant strategy was \n‘replanning and reappraisal’ which could promote a range of mentees’ developmental assets \n(i.e., boundaries and expectations, support, empowerment, positive identity, positive values, \nand commitment to learning) in addition to decreasing mentees’ negative outcomes (i.e., risktaking \nand depression). Neither type of mentoring relationship was a predictor of mentees’ \nsocial competencies and no strategies have been found to play a mediating role in order to \npromote this asset. \nIn the ‘Mentor Study’, a cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey primarily \nconsisting of open-ended questions about mentoring support for cognitive emotion regulation \nwas administered to thirty-five mentors. A thematic analysis demonstrated that mentors make \nefforts to assist their mentees’ cognitive emotion regulation through two over-arching \nstrategies: reassurance techniques (e.g., mentors’ use of self-disclosure, normalising mentees’ \nfeelings, redirecting mentees’ self-blame, showing availability, and validation); and by \nproviding new ways of learning (e.g., teaching adaptive strategies and promoting moral \ndevelopment). The findings of both studies are brought together in a final discussion that offers \nan in-depth understanding of this important topic.
Author: Kiadarbandsari, Atefeh
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7000413558