Posted by eporter on July 31, 2024
A Guide for Preventing Premature Match Closure in Mentoring Relationships
Alarmingly, nearly 40% of youth mentoring relationships end early.1 Premature match closure is associated with various negative outcomes in young people, and mentees who are in matches that end early experience significantly fewer benefits from mentoring than mentees who are in long-lasting relationships. For example, young people who are in mentoring relationships that end within three months experience decreases in self-worth and confidence in their academic abilities, and mentees in relationships that end within six months report increases in alcohol use.2
The prevalence of early termination of mentoring relationships and the negative impacts of premature match closure has raised concerns in mentoring programs across the nation. To help your mentoring program support matches, so they may experience more positive outcomes, we have outlined evidence-based tips for preventing premature match closure and promoting long-lasting mentoring relationships.
Tip 1: Promote Positive Attitudes Toward Youth
Some mentors may enter a mentoring relationship with negative attitudes toward young people. For example, some adults may believe that all teenagers are troublemakers or all children are lazy in school. Stereotyping and negative beliefs such as these are harmful to the mentoring relationship because mentors may not only communicate these negative messages to their mentee, which can negatively impact their mentee’s self-worth, but they may also be more likely to give up on their mentoring relationship. If a mentee makes a decision that affirms a mentor’s negative beliefs about young people, the mentor may be more likely to believe their mentee is “beyond help” and end the relationship early.
Mentoring program staff have opportunities to promote more positive attitudes toward youth in mentors when conducting in-person trainings or support meetings with mentors. Program staff can model positive attitudes for mentors by using positive, person-first language about young people around mentors. For example, staff may use the terms “child with a substance use disorder” rather than “addict” to describe a mentee who has been impacted by substance misuse. In this way, staff can demonstrate ways of viewing young people with dignity, rather than from a place of deficiency, for mentors to think about and potentially replicate.
Mentors may also be more likely to build positive attitudes toward young people by simply spending more time with their mentee. Program staff should provide opportunities for matches to complete fun activities together, so mentors can learn more about their mentee’s positive attributes and values and develop more positive attitudes toward their mentee.
Tip 2: Communicate Clear Expectations
A common reason that mentoring relationships end early is that mentors, mentees, and parents of mentees sometimes hold unrealistically positive expectations for the mentoring relationship. If a mentee, mentor, or parent believes that the mentoring relationship will be free of challenges and will progress quickly, they will likely become disappointed when the relationship encounters a challenge. Disappointment, in turn, often leans to the dissolution of the mentoring relationship.
Communicating clear expectations for the mentoring experience in mentor recruitment materials, pre-match training, and match meetings is an important way program staff can help mentors, mentees, and parents know what to expect from mentoring, so they are less likely to become disappointed.
Mentoring Central’s Building the Foundation courses for mentors, mentees, and parents/caregivers of mentees teach realistic expectations for mentoring to promote long-lasting relationships.
Tip 3: Build Empathy in Mentors
Empathic mentors are more likely to be flexible with their mentee and may have greater satisfaction as a mentor. In addition, understanding a mentee’s perspective may help mentors provide better support to their mentee. Providing high-quality support and experiencing satisfaction as a mentor can both, in turn, contribute to longer, stronger mentoring relationships. Therefore, program staff should aim to help their mentors build empathy before and during a mentoring relationship.
For example, program staff can encourage mentors to view situations and relationship challenges from their mentee’s point-of-view before choosing to act or speak, so they can make the best decisions for their match.
Another important way to prevent premature match closure is teaching mentors the ways that early match termination can negatively impact mentees. Helping mentors build empathy and understand the ways that premature match closure could negatively impact their mentee may make mentors less likely to end their relationship early.
Tip 4: Emphasize the Importance of Roles
When mentors have a strong identity as a mentor, they may feel confident and motivated to continue mentoring when challenges arise, rather than end the relationship early. To help volunteers build stronger identities as mentors, staff should provide them with pre-match training that communicates the roles of mentors, as well as what mentors should not do, such as the Building the Foundation for Mentors course.
Mentors may feel motivated and proud of their identity as a mentor when they understand how their role is different from the role of their mentee’s parents but still important. When mentors feel that they play an important role in their mentee’s life that cannot be replicated by parents or peers, mentors may feel more motivated to contribute to their relationship. Training on roles in the mentoring relationship can also help mentors understand that their choices related to the mentoring relationship have a significant impact on their mentee, so they may be more likely to make decisions that contribute to a longer, stronger relationship.
Tip 5: Encourage Commitment and Perseverance
Commitment and perseverance are both characteristics in mentors that may lead to more long-lasting mentoring relationships. When training mentors before meeting with their mentee for the first time, program staff should clearly state the intended longevity of relationships and time commitments required of mentors in their program. Communicating these expectations early allow mentors more time to analyze and build their commitment to the relationship.
In addition, staff should regularly provide both positive feedback and constructive criticism to mentors in their program. Praising the achievements of mentoring relationships may build mentors’ confidence and motivation for mentoring. When discussing challenges that the match is facing, staff should explain to mentors that challenges are normal in mentoring relationships, so the mentor does not lose confidence or believe that they are “failing” as a mentor. Staff should also be engaged in problem solving with mentors and encourage them to reach out when needed, so mentors feel supported. Contributing to a mentor’s confidence in their mentoring abilities and helping them feel supported can motivate mentors to persevere when challenges arise instead of giving up.
Tip 6: Train Mentors to Support Youth Who Experience Risk Factors
Mentees who are at risk for negative behavioral outcomes, such as mentees who are in foster care, mentees with an incarcerated caregiver, and mentees who are immigrants, are more likely to experience premature match closure compared to mentees who are not at risk.1
One way to prevent early match termination for mentees who are at risk is to provide pre-match training to mentors that teaches them ways to support a mentee who is experiencing risk factors. Mentees who are at risk may need a different kind of care and support from mentors than mentees who are not at risk, and basic mentor training alone may not be sufficient to help mentors serving special populations of youth.
Mentoring Central’s Substance of Change: Building Assets in Mentees Affected By Substance Misuse course is an example of specialized mentor training designed to promote positive outcomes in mentees who are at risk for negative behavioral outcomes. The course teaches mentors practical strategies to support a mentee who has been impacted by substance misuse and to promote positive growth in their mentee.
If you are interested in learning more tips to promote strong, long-lasting mentoring relationships, sign up for the Mentoring Central newsletter by completing the form at https://mentoringcentral.net/contact/ to receive more resources and news in the field of mentoring.