Everything is okay and everything will be okay; Mentors supporting mentees’ cognitive emotion regulation strategies to promote positive youth development

Abstract

Positive youth development (PYD) models and frameworks provide an overview of youth strengths and resources that direct young people towards positive developmental trajectories. As one popular context for promoting PYD, youth mentoring aims to promote positive outcomes for youth by facilitating supportive relationships through both formal and natural mentoring approaches. This thesis was designed to investigate an overlooked, but potentially important, developmental process that may be facilitated through effective mentoring support: mentees’ development of cognitive emotion regulation skills. Consequently, this doctoral thesis examined: (a) whether different types of mentoring interactions support differentially influence positive developmental and well-being outcomes for participating mentees; (b) whether the mentees’ use of adaptive or non-adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies mediates the relationship between the different types of mentoring interactions and the mentees’ developmental outcomes; and (c) how mentors support their mentees’ cognitiveemotional regulation skills when their mentees encounter stressful circumstances. Using a multi method research design, this research was divided into two studies, a ‘Mentee Study’ and a ‘Mentor Study’. In the ‘Mentee Study’, a cross-sectional online survey was conducted with a total of 300 mentees across New Zealand. Structural equation modelling revealed differences in the effectiveness of goal-directed and relational-focused mentoring interactions of mentoring relationships on favourable and unfavourable youth outcomes. Specifically, the relational-focused interaction was positively associated with mentees’ assets of support, empowerment, and positive values, as described in the Search Institute’s Developmental Assets framework. Moreover, mentoring that was characterised by high levels of relational support was associated with lower levels of mentees’ depression. In contrast, mentoring characterised by high levels of goal-directed interactions was associated with higher levels of mentee depressive symptoms and lower empowerment. The mediation analysis revealed that the relational-focused mentoring interaction was not associated with mentees’ use of cognitive emotion regulation strategies in order to promote their positive outcomes and lessen negative outcomes. In contrast, goal-directed mentoring interaction was more likely to influence mentees’ use of ‘replanning and reappraisal’, ‘putting into perspective’, and ‘acceptance’. The only favourable and significant strategy was ‘replanning and reappraisal’ which could promote a range of mentees’ developmental assets (i.e., boundaries and expectations, support, empowerment, positive identity, positive values, and commitment to learning) in addition to decreasing mentees’ negative outcomes (i.e., risktaking and depression). Neither type of mentoring relationship was a predictor of mentees’ social competencies and no strategies have been found to play a mediating role in order to promote this asset. In the ‘Mentor Study’, a cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey primarily consisting of open-ended questions about mentoring support for cognitive emotion regulation was administered to thirty-five mentors. A thematic analysis demonstrated that mentors make efforts to assist their mentees’ cognitive emotion regulation through two over-arching strategies: reassurance techniques (e.g., mentors’ use of self-disclosure, normalising mentees’ feelings, redirecting mentees’ self-blame, showing availability, and validation); and by providing new ways of learning (e.g., teaching adaptive strategies and promoting moral development). The findings of both studies are brought together in a final discussion that offers an in-depth understanding of this important topic.