TY - JOUR
T1 - Mentoring Relationships in the Lives of Boys and Young Men
AU - Rhodes, Jean E.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2026 by The American Academy of Political and Social Science. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
PY - 2024/11/1
Y1 - 2024/11/1
N2 - In developed countries, males lag females on nearly every educational indicator, from early childhood readiness to postsecondary enrollment and completion (Hurst 2024; Irwin et al. 2024). One contributing factor is their limited access to positive male role models and mentors in their families, schools, and communities (Yu et al. 2021). Although formal mentoring can help bridge these gaps, many programs are not as effective as they could be and suffer from a shortage of male volunteers. I review what research has shown about the need for mentoring and the promise of various mentoring approaches, and I propose several strategies to increase both the effectiveness and availability of male role models and mentors in the lives of boys and young men.
AB - In developed countries, males lag females on nearly every educational indicator, from early childhood readiness to postsecondary enrollment and completion (Hurst 2024; Irwin et al. 2024). One contributing factor is their limited access to positive male role models and mentors in their families, schools, and communities (Yu et al. 2021). Although formal mentoring can help bridge these gaps, many programs are not as effective as they could be and suffer from a shortage of male volunteers. I review what research has shown about the need for mentoring and the promise of various mentoring approaches, and I propose several strategies to increase both the effectiveness and availability of male role models and mentors in the lives of boys and young men.
KW - boys and young men
KW - male role models
KW - mentoring relationships
KW - volunteer recruitment
KW - youth development
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105039155672
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105039155672#tab=citedBy
U2 - 10.1177/00027162261431696
DO - 10.1177/00027162261431696
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:105039155672
SN - 0002-7162
VL - 716
SP - 141
EP - 155
JO - Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
JF - Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
IS - 1 Educating Boys: Bridging Gaps, Building Futures
ER -