Mentor Self-Disclosure in Youth Mentoring Relationships: A Review of the Literature About Adults Disclosing to Non-Familial Adolescents in Intervention Settings

Adolescent Research Review, Aug 2017

Youth mentoring is a popular intervention that pairs caring adults and vulnerable young people to promote positive outcomes and youth thriving. Evidence of the modest effects of mentoring has spurred interest in identifying how mentoring relationships can be enhanced. Like mentoring, psychotherapy is an intervention where adults form interpersonal relationships with non-familial adolescents. Theory and research from the psychotherapy domain indicates that therapist self-disclosure is communication tool that may be particularly beneficial for use with adolescents. The scant research regarding self-disclosure in youth mentoring contexts either precedes contemporary mentoring research, or is a peripheral part of research focused on other relationship factors. To bridge a gap between the two interventions, this review details the available literature about self-disclosure in youth mentoring relationships, then draws on research about therapist self-disclosure that may provide insight into the purpose and effect of mentor self-disclosure to adolescent mentees. A discussion of the critical differences between the roles of mentor and therapist, and some associated risks is also provided. This review highlights mentor self-disclosure as a powerful tool for developing high quality relationships, setting the foundation for future research and mentor training for safe and effective practice.

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Mentor Self-Disclosure in Youth Mentoring Relationships: A Review of the Literature About Adults Disclosing to Non-Familial Adolescents in Intervention Settings

Mentor Self-Disclosure in Youth Mentoring Relationships: A Review of the Literature About Adults Disclosing to Non- Familial Adolescents in Intervention Settings Hilary Dutton 0 0 Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Auckland , Private Bag 92601, Symonds Street, Auckland 1150 , New Zealand 1 Hilary Dutton Youth mentoring is a popular intervention that pairs caring adults and vulnerable young people to promote positive outcomes and youth thriving. Evidence of the modest effects of mentoring has spurred interest in identifying how mentoring relationships can be enhanced. Like mentoring, psychotherapy is an intervention where adults form interpersonal relationships with non-familial adolescents. Theory and research from the psychotherapy domain indicates that therapist self-disclosure is communication tool that may be particularly beneficial for use with adolescents. The scant research regarding self-disclosure in youth mentoring contexts either precedes contemporary mentoring research, or is a peripheral part of research focused on other relationship factors. To bridge a gap between the two interventions, this review details the available literature about self-disclosure in youth mentoring relationships, then draws on research about therapist self-disclosure that may provide insight into the purpose and effect of mentor self-disclosure to adolescent mentees. A discussion of the critical differences between the roles of mentor and therapist, and some associated risks is also provided. This review highlights mentor self-disclosure as a powerful tool for developing high quality relationships, setting the foundation for future research and mentor training for safe and effective practice. Youth mentoring; Self-disclosure; Mentors; Mentoring relationships Introduction The promise of youth mentoring is that something special will happen when a caring adult is paired with a vulnerable young person. This promise has sustained the growth and development of mentoring programs to address a range of youth issues across diverse contexts. Youth mentoring programs bring young people together with non-familial adults “with the aim of cultivating a relationship that will foster the young person’s positive development and wellbeing” (DuBois et al. 2011, p. 58) . Exploring mentoring relationships is essential to understanding how they can create positive change in the lives of youth (Deutsch and Spencer 2009) . As a result, youth mentoring has attracted considerable attention from researchers seeking explanations for what that “something special” is, and how it can be cultivated in all mentoring relationships. The quality of the dyadic relationship between mentor and mentee has been identified as a critical component of the success of youth mentoring (Rhodes and DuBois 2008) . With growing evidence of the positive impact of relationship quality on mentoring effectiveness, the interest in understanding how high quality relationships can be nurtured by mentors and programs also grows. Yet, what kind of communication occurs between mentors and mentees, and how it may affect relationship quality, is largely unknown. As a result, programs have little evidence from youth mentoring contexts to train and support mentors in maximizing communication techniques to develop quality relationships. Studies of relationships, closeness, and communication often include some consideration of self-disclosure (Greene et al. 2006) . Self-disclosure generally includes any way individuals reveal information about themselves to another person (Wheeless and Grotz 1976) . By sharing personal details, self-disclosure is thought to have a significant impact on relationships by promoting intimacy and trust (Jourard 1971) and has been theoretically described as the primary process through which individuals establish closeness in personal relationships (Altman and Taylor 1973) . The importance of self-disclosure is evident in the wider literature on relationships. Researchers have explored how self-disclosure affects familial relationships (e.g., Finkenauer et al. 2004) , romantic relationships (e.g., Weber et al. 2004) , friendships (e.g., Matsushima and Shiomi 2002) , clinical relationships between therapists and clients (e.g., Hill and Knox 2002) , as well as relationships in settings such as schools (e.g., Cayanus et al. 2009) and online communities (e.g., Tang and Wang 2012) . Self-disclosure research has also explored the content of self-disclosure, particularly regarding the perceived intimacy of various topics and who individuals disclose to about specific topics (e.g., Dolgin 1996; Dolgin and Kim 1994; Frye and Dornisch 2010; Rubin and Shenker 1978; Sollie and Fischer 1985) . The Current Study This article bridges a gap between two interventions where adults form interpersonal relationships with non-familial adolescents: youth mentoring and psychotherapy. The literature on self-disclosure is vast, but (...truncated)


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Hilary Dutton. Mentor Self-Disclosure in Youth Mentoring Relationships: A Review of the Literature About Adults Disclosing to Non-Familial Adolescents in Intervention Settings, Adolescent Research Review, 2017, pp. 1-10, DOI: 10.1007/s40894-017-0065-0