Barron-McKeagney, Theresa, Woody, Jane D., and Henry J. D’Souza. 2002. Mentoring at-risk Latino children and their parents: Analysis of the parent-child relationship and family strength. Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Human Services 83 (May-June): 285-293. A non-random study of Latino youth in one mentoring program. The authors found that one of the most important factors in success of the program was involving parents in the mentoring program, specifically, in matching children and mentors.

DuBois, David L., Holloway, Bruce E., Valentine, Jeffrey C., and Harris Cooper. 2002. Effectiveness of mentoring programs for youth: A meta-analytic review. American Journal of Community Psychology 30 (April): 157-198. An analysis of fifty-five matched or pre- and post-test studies conducted from 1970 through 1998. The authors found that the most successful programs based mentor-youth matches on parental and youth preference, and that mentor training and frequent mentor-youth contact made matches more likely to be successful.

Grossman, Jean B., and Kathryn Furano. 2002. Making the most of volunteers. Philadelphia: Private/Public Ventures. (On-line: cited 23 January 2003). A literature review, based primarily on their study of Big Brothers/Big Sisters, of the most successful techniques to choose and train volunteers, detailing specific strategies to screen, train and support mentors. (links directly to article)

Grossman, Jean B., and Jean E. Rhodes. 2002. The test of time: Predictors and the effects of duration in youth mentoring relationships. American Journal of Community Psychology 30 (April): 199-220. Another randomized study of Bog Brothers/Big Sisters show that relationships between mentor and youth that last for at least a year led to more parental and peer attachment, greater valuing school and better grades.

Herrera, Carla, Sipe, Cynthia L., and Wendy S. McClanahan. 2000. Mentoring school-age children: Relationship development in community-based and school-based programs (PDF). Philadelphia: Public Private Ventures. (On-line: cited 23 January 2003). A study of both school-based and community-based mentoring programs. Authors surveyed 669 school-based and 346 community-based mentors (out of 1101 who had been sent surveys) from thirty-seven programs. They outline several factors that are associated with increases in the quality of the relationships between mentor and child.

Johnson, Amy W. 1998. An evaluation of the long-term impacts of Sponsor-a-Scholar: Final report to Commonwealth Fund. Princeton, NJ: Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. Johnson conducted a matching study of 180 pairs of youth ages 14 to 19 in the Sponsor-a Scholar program, which tries to help youth get into college. She found that those with better relationships with their mentors were more likely to achieve higher GPAs, and get into and stay in college.

Morrow, Kristine V., and Melanie B. Styles. 1995. Building relationships with youth in program settings: A study of Big Brothers/Big Sisters. Philadelphia: Public Private Ventures. The authors studied eighty-two matched pairs of youths aged ten to fifteen years, over nine months. Half of the youths were assigned mentors with “outcome-based” mentors, whose primary goal was to help youth attain specific achievement-oriented goals. The other half were assigned “process-based” mentors, who cited developing good relationships with youth as their primary goal. However, the study found that best mentors focused not on their own perceptions of goals but the youths’ goals.

Royse, David. 1998. Mentoring high-risk minority youth: Evaluation of the Brothers Project. Adolescence 33 (Spring): 145-159. The Bothers Project randomized participants and those on waiting lists and found after a year no change in self-esteem, use of drugs and alcohol, or better grades. Royse speculates that the reason is that the mentoring relationship only lasted a year, not long enough to be effective.

Sipe, Cynthia L. 1996. Mentoring: A synthesis of Public/Private Venture’s research (PDF). Philadelphia: Public/Private Ventures. (On-line: cited 23 January 2003). A literature review based on several randomized studies of the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program for adolescent mentoring.

Tierney, Jean P., Grossman, Jean B., and Research NL. 2000. Making a difference: An impact study of Big Brothers/Big Sisters (PDF). Philadelphia: Public/Private Ventures. (On-line: cited 23 January 2003). A study of 959 youth aged ten through sixteen, in 1992 and 1993. About half of the youth, chosen randomly, were assigned a mentor in the program, while the others were put on a waiting list. Those working with mentors were significantly less likely to engage in physical violence and drug and alcohol abuse, as well as show more confidence about school.