Mentoring to reduce antisocial behaviour in childhood

Abstract

The effects of social interventions need to be examined in real life situations as well as studies Politicians and policy makers are increasingly interested in evidence based decision making. They are under pressure to look to research for solutions to policy problems and justify programmes by reference to the knowledge base. It is tempting for policy makers to grasp any research on seemingly intractable social problems, however slim, in the hope of finding simple solutions. Rolling out national programmes based on inadequate evidence can, however, do more harm than good. We use the example of mentoring for young people with, or at risk of, antisocial behaviour problems to show the potential dangers of running ahead of the evidence.

The Impact of Reentry Services on Juvenile Offenders' Recidivism

“…In summary, although the impact of community-based mentoring on risk factors for delinquency is fairly well established, less is known about the effects of mentoring on delinquency or antisocial behavior (Roberts, Liabo, Lucas, DuBois, & Sheldon, 2004) and the impact of mentoring on justice system-involved youth. Some program evaluations have begun to provide positive results (e.g., AIM, 2004;Barnoski, 2002;Jarjoura, 2003), and there are indications that mentoring services may help improve compliance with communitybased interventions for court-involved youth (Gur & Miller, 2004); however, the existing research on this issue is far from conclusive.…”

The Researcher's Agenda for Evidence

“…The probability of bias with nonrandomised studies is an important point for policy makers, and it has been shown across the social policy field (see e.g. Davies et al ., 2000;Gough, 1993;Macdonald, 1997;Oakley, 2000;Oakley & Fullerton, 1996;Roberts et al ., 2004). Thomas et al .…”

Improving Youth Mentoring Interventions Through Research‐based Practice

“…The inclusion of these additional studies will help practitioners and policy-makers establish more realistic goals and expectations concerning program scale, intensity, length and outcomes. For now, as unsatisfying as it may sound, the conclusion that ''robust research does indicate benefits from mentoring for some young people, for some programmes, in some circumstances, in relation to some outcomes,'' is probably the closest to a ''bottom line'' on youth mentoring that can be reached (Roberts et al 2004).…”