Mentoring Latinx Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Latinx children and adolescents are uniquely positioned within the U.S. context, historically experiencing both systemic and institutional failings. Mentoring relationships plays a protective role in healthy youth development and may alleviate some of the deficit narrative often placed upon Latinx youth. To better understand these potential benefits, this systematic review examined the current literature on the role of mentoring (i.e., both natural and formal mentoring) in a variety of developmental outcomes of Latinx children and adolescents in the U.S., ranging from kindergarten-age to under 18 years old. The 24 included studies had mixed results, yet findings pointed to a range of potential benefits for this population, such as improved academic and psychosocial outcomes, language and ethnic identity. Various components of mentoring—including mentor characteristics, relationship characteristics, and family involvement in mentoring programs—were also found to be related to Latinx youth’s improved developmental outcomes. However, methodological concerns in study designs limit what can be gleaned from these conclusions. Recommendations for future directions for research and intervention are provided.

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Adolescent Research Review (2022) 7:79–99
https://doi.org/10.1007/s40894-021-00156-3
SYSTEMATIC REVIEW
Mentoring Latinx Children andAdolescents: ASystematic Review
WendydelosReyes1 · BernadetteSánchez2· AntonioPolo1· AlmaQuiroz1· KayThursby2· AlexanderO’Donnell1·
LidiaY.Monjaras‑Gaytan1
Received: 7 November 2020 / Accepted: 13 April 2021 / Published online: 23 April 2021
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
Abstract
Latinx children and adolescents are uniquely positioned within the U.S. context, historically experiencing both systemic
and institutional failings. Mentoring relationships plays a protective role in healthy youth development and may alleviate
some of the deficit narrative often placed upon Latinx youth. To better understand these potential benefits, this systematic
review examined the current literature on the role of mentoring (i.e., both natural and formal mentoring) in a variety of
developmental outcomes of Latinx children and adolescents in the U.S., ranging from kindergarten-age to under 18years old.
The 24 included studies had mixed results, yet findings pointed to a range of potential benefits for this population, such as
improved academic and psychosocial outcomes, language and ethnic identity. Various components of mentoring—including
mentor characteristics, relationship characteristics, and family involvement in mentoring programs—were also found to be
related to Latinx youth’s improved developmental outcomes. However, methodological concerns in study designs limit what
can be gleaned from these conclusions. Recommendations for future directions for research and intervention are provided.
Keywords Mentoring· Adolescents· Children· Latinx· Latina/o· Hispanic
Introduction
Mentoring interventions largely target youth of color; yet
it is unclear whether these types of programs are designed
with the contextual needs and strengths of specific racial/
ethnic groups, including the Latinx community. In a national
study of 1451 mentoring programs serving over 400,000
youth, it was found that 76% of the mentees served were
youth of color, 20% being Latinx (Garringer etal., 2017).
Latinx youth are the youngest major racial/ethnic group in
the U.S. (median age is 29) and the fastest growing popula-
tion (Hugo etal., 2018). The rapid growth highlights the
importance of efforts to improve the overall wellbeing of
this community. There have been positive improvements
in Latinx youth outcomes over the last several years (e.g.,
increases in educational attainment, lower teen births), how-
ever they still fall behind their White counterparts in social
and economic indicators due to a range of historic and con-
textual factors (Foxen & Mather, 2016). Some researchers
have examined whether the involvement of adults in youth’s
lives through mentoring can begin to address these gaps. The
purpose of this systematic review was to examine the state of
the mentoring research literature to gain an in-depth under-
standing of what is known about mentoring among Latinx
children and adolescents; particularly the characteristics of
mentors, mentoring relationships and mentoring programs
targeting Latinx youth and the effects of mentoring for this
population.
The mentoring research literature has been guided by a
developmental conceptual model of youth mentoring (Rho-
des, 2005). According to this model, mentoring promotes
positive outcomes in children and adolescents through three
developmental and interrelated processes: identity, cognitive
and social development. It is postulated that through these
developmental processes, mentoring relationships between
youth and adults promote positive developmental trajectories
and prevent psychosocial problems and behaviors. Further,
from a positive youth development perspective (Lerner etal.,
2015), mentoring relationships are viewed as an ecological,
developmental asset, and the mutual interactions between
youth and their mentors play a protective role in the healthy
* Wendy de los Reyes
w.delosreyes@gmail.com
1 Department ofPsychology, DePaul University, 2219 N
Kenmore Ave #420, Chicago, IL60614, USA
2 Department ofEducational Psychology, University ofIllinois
At Chicago, 1040 W Harrison St, Chicago, IL60607, USA
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