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Cited by 20Mentoring and Academic DevelopmentYouth Development and Social SupportCounseling Practices and Supervision

Experiences and needs of multicultural youth and their mentors, and implications for digital mentoring platforms: Qualitative exploratory study

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Radlick, Rebecca Lynn, Mirkovic, Jelena, Przedpelska, Sarah, Halvorsen Brendmo, Elanor, Gammon, Deede·2020·JMIR Formative Research
DOI 10.2196/15500PMC PMC7055812
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Abstract

BACKGROUND: Mentoring programs (ie, programs that connect youths with adult volunteers) have been shown to improve outcomes across the behavioral, social, and academic domains of youth development. As in other European countries, mentoring programs have few traditions in Norway, where interventions for multicultural youths are usually profession driven and publicly funded. Faced with the risk of disparities in education and health, there is a need to better understand this group's experiences and requirements relative to mentoring. This would also serve as a basis for designing and implementing digital support. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to gain insight into multicultural youth mentees' and adult mentors' experiences and needs in the context of an ongoing mentoring program, how digital support (electronic mentoring) might address these needs, and how such support could be designed and implemented. METHODS: The study used a qualitative approach, with data from 28 respondents (21 mentees and 7 mentors). In total, 4 workshops with mentees as well as semistructured interviews with mentees and mentors were conducted. The sessions were audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed thematically. RESULTS: In total, 3 main themes were identified from the experiences and needs reported by the mentees and mentors. These included a need for connection, help in achieving goals, and the need for security and control. Subthemes encompassed a desire to socialize with others, balancing the nature of the relationship, paying it forward, building trust, sharing insights and information with peers, goal-oriented mentees and mentors wanting to assist with goal achievement, and the fundamental need for privacy and anonymity in the digital platform. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study are supported by the literature on traditional mentoring, while also offering suggestions for the design of digital solutions to supplement the in-person mentoring of multicultural youth. Suggestions include digital support for managing the mentee-mentor relationships, fostering social capital, and ways of ensuring security and control. Features of existing electronic health apps can be readily adapted to a mentoring program context, potentially boosting the reach and benefits of mentoring.

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  • The promoting-catalyzing component encourages self-esteem, autonomy and self-direction, role modeling, guidance, advocacy, empowerment and challenge, future planning, and promoting motivation, and includes skill-based career and academic support.

    “The third component of promoting-catalyzing encourages self-esteem, autonomy and self-direction, role modeling, guidance, advocacy, empowerment and challenge, future planning, and promoting motivation. Other elements of this component include skill-based career and academic support [80,82,83,85,86,88,92,93,98,108].”

    From Unpacking Community-Based Youth Mentoring Relationships: An Integrative Review (2021) · cites this paper as [92]

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  • The emotional component is the most frequently engaged and includes aspects of trust, reliability, consistency, support, and authenticity in mentoring programs in all formats operating with American, European, Israeli, and Australian youth.

    “The emotional component, which is the most frequently engaged, includes aspects of trust, reliability, consistency, support, and authenticity in mentoring programs in all formats operating with American, European, Israeli, and Australian youth [78,80,85,86,87,88,89,90,91,92,93,94,95,96].”

    From Unpacking Community-Based Youth Mentoring Relationships: An Integrative Review (2021) · cites this paper as [92]

    The Results section, under “Relational Trust: A Supportive and Safe Environment” (page unavailable), identifies trust as important to the mentor–mentee relationship; the Discussion also describes a need for supportive sharing. The paper does not establish that an emotional component is the most frequently engaged, substantiate the full list of qualities, or study mentoring programs across all the named regions and formats. Its study concerns multicultural youth in a Norwegian mentoring program. (LLM, conf=0.86)

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  • The recreational component refers to connectedness, companionship, friendship, and ongoing communication, accompanied by collaboration, mutuality, and self-disclosure.

    “The recreational component refers to connectedness, companionship, friendship, and ongoing communication [80,82,91,92,94,96,97,98,99,103,104], accompanied by collaboration, mutuality [39,86,94,95,96,103,105], and self-disclosure [106,107].”

    From Unpacking Community-Based Youth Mentoring Relationships: An Integrative Review (2021) · cites this paper as [92]

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Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. [26]Creswell JW Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Methods Approaches. Fourth Edition 2014 Los Angeles Sage

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Authors
Radlick, R. L., Mirkovic, J., Przedpelska, S., Halvorsen Brendmo, E., & Gammon, D.
Affiliations
  • NORCE Research AS (NO)
  • Oslo University Hospital (NO)
Corresponding author
Radlick, Rebecca Lynn
ORCID
Venue
JMIR Formative Research
Publisher
JMIR Publications Inc.
Published
2020-02-04
Volume
4
Issue
2
Pages
e15500
ISSN
2561-326X (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.2196/15500
PMC
PMC7055812
OpenAlex
W3011470968
Cited by
20
References
38
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 2
FWCI
3.28
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by
Locations
  • JMIR Formative Research (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • NORA - Norwegian Open Research Archives (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Funders
  • Norges Forskningsråd
  • Högskolan i Halmstad
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mentoring and Academic Development
  • Social Sciences › Safety Research › Youth Development and Social Support
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Counseling Practices and Supervision
Keywords
multicultural adolescents, mentoring programs, online mentoring, youth development, trust, privacy and anonymity, social capital, goal achievement

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