Pilot randomized trial of brief school‐based mentoring for middle school students with elevated disruptive behavior
Abstract
We report a pilot study of a brief (i.e., 10 sessions) goal-focused mentoring program for middle school students with elevated disruptive behavior. Students with high levels of school misconduct (n = 67) were randomly assigned to the program or school as usual. We collected multi-informant emotional, behavioral, and academic functioning assessments pre- and postintervention. Results indicate that the program produced significant positive changes in school behavioral infractions, math grades, students' report of emotional symptoms, and school problems. Mentors found the curriculum acceptable, understood the material from the manual, found implementing the curriculum feasible, and felt the program was congruent with the school mission. Mentors of less impaired students indicated that they desired additional support implementing the manual, perhaps indicating the program is overengineered for students with higher levels of impairment. The manuscript concludes with a discussion of considerations for future research and implementation, including the importance of integrating mentoring programs into existing support systems (e.g., multitiered systems of support) within the school context.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The SBM program decreased disciplinary referrals.
“decreased disciplinary referrals (Gordon et al., 2013; McQuillin et al., 2021; Wasburn-Moses and Noltemeyer, 2018)”
From Outcome domains and assessment measures in school-based youth mentoring programs: a systematic review (2026) · cites this paper as McQuillin et al., 2021
The SBM program increased overall life satisfaction.
“overall life satisfaction (McQuillin and McDaniel, 2021)”
From Outcome domains and assessment measures in school-based youth mentoring programs: a systematic review (2026) · cites this paper as McQuillin and McDaniel, 2021
Cites
Toward a theory of motivational interviewing
Miller, W. R., & Rose, G. S. (2009) · American Psychologist · doi:10.1037/a0016830 · Cited by 1,603 · see citing works
Effectiveness of mentoring programs for youth: A meta-analytic review
DuBois, D. L., Holloway, B. E., Valentine, J. C., & Cooper, H. (2002) · American Journal of Community Psychology · doi:10.1023/a:1014628810714 · Cited by 1,544 · see citing works
Initial development of the student's life satisfaction scale
Huebner, E. S. (1991) · School Psychology International · doi:10.1177/0143034391123010 · Cited by 1,101 · see citing works
How Effective Are Mentoring Programs for Youth? A Systematic Assessment of the Evidence
DuBois, D. L., Portillo, N., Rhodes, J. E., Silverthorn, N., & Valentine, J. C. (2011) · Psychological Science in the Public Interest · doi:10.1177/1529100611414806 · Cited by 889 · see citing works
The Effects of Youth Mentoring Programs: A Meta-analysis of Outcome Studies
Raposa, E. B., Rhodes, J., Stams, G. J. J. M., Card, N., Burton, S., Schwartz, S., Sykes, L. A. Y., Kanchewa, S., Kupersmidt, J., & Hussain, S. (2019) · Journal of Youth and Adolescence · doi:10.1007/s10964-019-00982-8 · Cited by 366 · see citing works
Secondary prevention as context for assessing change processes in aggressive children
Cavell, T. A., & Hughes, J. N. (2000) · Journal of School Psychology · doi:10.1016/s0022-4405(99)00040-0 · Cited by 105 · see citing works
The Impact of Youth Risk on Mentoring Relationship Quality: Do Mentor Characteristics Matter?
Raposa, E. B., Rhodes, J. E., & Herrera, C. (2016) · American Journal of Community Psychology · doi:10.1002/ajcp.12057 · Cited by 88 · see citing works
Trends in Volunteer Mentoring in the United States: Analysis of a Decade of Census Survey Data
Raposa, E. B., Dietz, N., & Rhodes, J. E. (2017) · American Journal of Community Psychology · doi:10.1002/ajcp.12117 · Cited by 81 · see citing works
Mentoring Interventions to Affect Juvenile Delinquency and Associated Problems: A Systematic Review
Tolan, P., Henry, D., Schoeny, M., Bass, A., Lovegrove, P., & Nichols, E. (2013) · Campbell Systematic Reviews: Better Evidence for a Better World · doi:10.4073/csr.2013.10 · Cited by 77 · see citing works
Langberg, J. M., Dvorsky, M. R., Molitor, S. J., Bourchtein, E., Eddy, L. D., Smith, Z. R., Oddo, L. E., & Eadeh, H.-M. (2018) · Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1037/ccp0000265 · Cited by 74 · see citing works
Lyons, M. D., McQuillin, S. D., & Henderson, L. J. (2019) · American Journal of Community Psychology · doi:10.1002/ajcp.12283 · Cited by 68 · see citing works
Review of Three Recent Randomized Trials of School-Based Mentoring and commentaries
Wheeler, M. E., Keller, T. E., & DuBois, D. L. (2010) · Child Policy Nexus · doi:10.1002/j.2379-3988.2010.tb00064.x · Cited by 65 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Tiraieyari, N., & Krauss, S. (2026) · Frontiers in Education · doi:10.3389/feduc.2026.1518053
- Authors
- McQuillin, S. D., & McDaniel, H. L.
- Affiliations
- University of South Carolina (US)
- University of Virginia (US)
- Corresponding author
- McQuillin, Samuel D.
- Venue
- Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2020-03-31
- Volume
- 1483
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 127-141
- ISSN
- 0077-8923 (ISSN-L)
- 1749-6632
- OpenAlex
- W3013986605
- Cited by
- 16
- References
- 12
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 2 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 1
- FWCI
- 2.26
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Behavioral and Psychological Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mentoring and Academic Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Therapy and Development
- Keywords
- school-based mentoring, junior high school students, disruptive behavior, school misconduct, emotional symptoms, academic performance, math grades, mentor perceptions, multi-tiered systems of support
- MeSH terms
- Problem Behavior, Mentoring, Adolescent, Child, Female, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Male, Mentors, Pilot Projects, Schools, Students, Program Evaluation
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
