Abstract
Natural mentors may play an important role in the lives of adolescents. We interviewed 770 adolescents from a large Midwestern city. Fifty-two percent reported having a natural mentor. Those with natural mentors were less likely to smoke marijuana or be involved in nonviolent delinquency, and had more positive attitudes toward school. Natural mentors had no apparent effect on anxiety or depression. Using the resiliency theory framework, natural mentors were found to have compensatory but not protective effects on problem behaviors, and both compensatory and protective effects on school attitudes. Direct and indirect (mediated) effects of natural mentors are explored for problem behaviors and school attitudes. The potential importance of natural mentors is supported, and implications for future research are considered.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Anderson, E. (1991). Neighborhood effects on teenage pregnancy. In C. Jencks & P. E. Peterson (Eds.), The urban underclass (pp. 375-398). Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.
Ary, D. V., Tildesley, E., Hops, H., & Andrews, J. (1993). The influence of parent, sibling, and peer modeling and attitudes on adolescent use of alcohol. The International Journal of the Addictions, 28, 853-880.
Baron, R. B., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 1173-1182.
Berk, R. A. (1983). An introduction to sample selection bias in sociological data. American Sociological Review, 48, 386-398.
Blechman, E. A. (1992). Mentors for high-risk minority youth: From effective communication to bicultural competence. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 21, 160-169.
Bray, J. H., & Maxwell, S. E. (1982). Analyzing and interpreting significant MANOVAs. Review of Educational Research, 52(3), 340-367.
Brook, J. S., Brook, D. W., Gordon, A. S., & Whiteman, M. (1990). The psychosocial etiology of adolescent drug use: A family interactional approach. Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs, 116, 111-267.
Cowen, E. L., & Work, W. (1988). Resilient children, psychological wellness, and primary prevention. American Journal of Community Psychology, 16, 591-607.
Derogatis, L. R., & Spencer, P.M. (1982). The Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI): Administration scoring and procedures manual-I. Baltimore, MD: Division of Medical Psychology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Dondero, G. M. (1997). Mentors: Beacons of hope. Adolescence, 32, 881-886.
Eccles, J. (1993). Middle School Family Survey Study. Boulder: University of Colorado.
Ennett, S. T., & Bauman, K. E. (1991). Mediators in the relationship between parental and peer characteristics and beer drinking in early adolescents. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 21, 1699-1711.
Frauenglass, S., Routh, D. K., Pantin, H. M., & Mason, C. A. (1997). Family support decreases influence of deviant peers on Hispanic adolescents' substance use. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 26(1), 15-23.
Gibbs, J. T. (1984). Black adolescents and youth: An endangered species. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 54, 6-21.
Garmezy, N. (1991). Resilience and vulnerability to adverse developmental outcomes associated with poverty. American Behavioral Scientist, 34, 416-430.
Garmezy, N., & Masten, A. S. (1991). The protective role of competence indicators in children at risk. In E. M. Cummings, A. L. Green, & K. H. Karraker (Eds.), Life-span developmental psychology: Perspectives on stress and coping (pp. 151-174). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Garmezy, N., Masten, A. S., & Tellegen, A. (1984). The study of stress and competence in children: A building block of developmental psychopathology. Child Development, 55, 97-111.
Hamilton, S. F., & Darling, N. (1996). Mentors in adolescents' lives. In K. Hurrelmann & S. F. Hamilton (Eds.), Social problems and social contexts in adolescence (pp. 121-139). Hawthorne, NY: Aldine.
Hawkins, J. D., Catalano, R. F., & Miller, J. Y. (1992). Risk and protective factors for alcohol and other drug problems in adolescence and early adulthood: Implications for substance abuse prevention. Psychological Bulletin, 112, 64-105.
Jenkins, J. E. (1996). The influence of peer affiliation and student activities on adolescent drug involvement. Adolescence, 31(122), 297-306.
Johnston, L.D., O'Malley, P. M., & Bachman, J. G. (1988). Illicit drug use, smoking, and drinking by America's high school students, college students, and young adults, 1975-1987. Rockville, MD: National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Kandel, D. B. (1978). Longitudinal research on drug use: Empirical findings and methodological issues. New York: Hemisphere.
Lefkowitz, B. (1986). Tough change: Growing up on your own in America. New York: Free Press.
Luthar, S. S., & Zigler, E. (1991). Vulnerability and competence: A review of research on resilience in childhood. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 61, 6-22.
Masten, A. S. (1994). Resilience in individual development: Successful adaptation despite risk and adversity. In M. Wang & E. W. Gordon (Eds.), Educational resilience in inner-city America (pp. 3-25). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Masten, A. S., Garmezy, N., Tellegen, A., Pelligrini, D. S., Larkin, K., & Larsen, A. (1988). Competence and stress in schoolchildren: The moderating effects of individual and family qualities. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 29, 745-764.
McClelland, G. H., & Judd, C. M. (1993). Statistical difficulties of detecting interactions and moderator effects. Psychological Bulletin, 114, 376-390.
Mech, E. V., Pryde, J. A., & Rycraft, J. R. (1995). Mentors for adolescents in foster care. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 12, 317-328.
Midgley, C., Maehr, M. L., & Urdan, T. (1993). Manuals for the Patterns of Adaptive Learning Survey (PALS). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan.
Nakao, K., & Treas, J. (1990a). Computing 1989 occupational prestige scores (GSS Methodological Report No. 70). Chicago: National Opinion Research Center.
Nakao, K., & Treas, J. (1990b). The 1989 socioeconomic index of occupations: Construction of the 1989 occupational prestige scores. (GSS Methodological Report No. 74). Chicago: National Opinion Research Center.
Nelson, C., & Valliant, P. M. (1993). Personality dynamics of adolescent boys where the father is absent. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 76, 435-443.
Oetting, E. R., & Donnermeyer, J. F. (1998). Primary socialization theory: The etiology of drug use and deviance. I. Substance Use and Misuse, 33, 995-1026.
Prentice, D. A., & Miller, D. T. (1992). When small effects are impressive. Psychological Bulletin, 112, 160-164.
Rhodes, J. E., Contreras, J. M., & Mangelsdorf, S. C. (1994). Natural mentors' relationships among Latino adolescent mothers: Psychological adjustment, moderating processes, and the role of early parental acceptance. American Journal of Community Psychology, 22, 211-228.
Rhodes, J. E., Ebert, L., & Fischer, K. (1992). Natural mentors: An overlooked resource in the social networks of youth, African American mothers. American Journal of Community Psychology, 20, 445-462.
Rhodes, J. E., & Jason, L. A. (1990). A social stress model of substance abuse. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 58, 395-401.
Reid, L. D. (1987). Factors associated with the drug use of fifth through eight grade students. Journal of Drug Education, 17, 149-161.
Roeser, R. W., Lord, S. E., & Eccles, J. (1994, February). A portrait of academic alienation in adolescence: Motivation, mental health, and family experience. Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research on Adolescence, San Diego, CA.
Royce, D. (1998). Mentoring high-risk minority youth: Evaluation of the Brothers Project. Adolescence, 33, 145-158.
Rutter, M. (1987). Psychosocial resilience and protective mechanisms. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 57, 316-331.
Slicker, E. K., & Palmer, D. J. (1993). Mentoring at-risk high school students: Evaluation of a school-based program. The School Counselor, 40, 327-334.
Sminck, J. (1990). Mentoring programs for at-risk youth: A dropout prevention research report. Clemson, SC: National Dropout Prevention Center.
Tierney, J. P., Grossman, J. B., & Resch, N. L. (1995). Making a difference: An impact study. Philadelphia: Public/Private Ventures.
Urberg, K. A., Shyu, S. J., & Liang, J. (1990). Peer influence in adolescent cigarette smoking. Addictive Behaviors, 15, 247-255.
Werner, E. E. (1993). Risk, resilience, and recovery: Perspectives from the Kauai Longitudinal Study. Development and Psychopathology, 5, 503-515.
Werner, E. E., & Smith, W. (1982). Vulnerable but invincible: A study of resilient children. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Williams, J. G., & Covington, C. J. (1997). Predictors of cigarette smoking among adolescents. Psychological Reports, 80, 481-482.
Zimmerman, M. A., & Arunkumar, R. (1994). Resiliency research: Implications for schools and policy. Social Policy Report, 8, 1-18.
Zimmerman, M. A., Caldwell, C. H., & Bernat, D. H. (2002). Discrepancy between self-report and school record GPA: Correlates with psychosocial outcomes among African American adolescents. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 32(1), 86-109.
Zimmerman, M. A., Steinman, K. J., & Rowe, K. J. (1998). Violence among urban African American adolescents: The protective effects of parental support. In X. B. Arriaga & S. Oskamp (Eds.), Addressing community problems: Psychological research and interventions (pp. 78-103). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zimmerman, M.A., Bingenheimer, J.B. & Notaro, P.C. Natural Mentors and Adolescent Resiliency: A Study with Urban Youth. Am J Community Psychol 30, 221–243 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1014632911622
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1014632911622