Natural Mentoring as a Form of Supporting Independent Living for Youth Aging Out of Foster Care
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25128/2520-6230.25.4.2Keywords:
mentoring, mentor, mentee, mentoring programs, independent living, foster careAbstract
Youth in foster care are at high risk of adverse outcomes across all areas of health and development, and they often face unfavorable results after leaving the care system. This is especially true given their limited internal and external resources. Research shows that those aging out of care encounter numerous difficulties in daily life. This review aims to identify existing knowledge on natural mentoring as one form of support for youth transitioning out of foster care. The research question concerns the effectiveness of this form of support in working with young people entering adulthood. A literature review method was applied. Scholarly literature was searched in Polish and English using databases including MEDLINE, PsycINFO, PubMed, and Scopus, supplemented by a Google Scholar query. Searches were conducted using key terms. Results: The effectiveness of natural mentoring is moderate, but it can be influenced by mentor characteristics and the mentoring relationship itself. Research on natural mentoring is focused on outcomes such as health and well-being, social skills, behavioral and emotional functioning, educational attainment, employment, perceived and received social support, conditions for utilizing different types of support, and the optimal qualities of non-parental adults who assist in the transition to independence. Social workers strive to maintain family contacts while youth are in care and intensify these efforts during emancipation. Regardless of these efforts, youth aging out of care seldom receive optimal support from their parents. Mentors can partially compensate for this deficit. Despite promising findings, the topic of mentoring in foster care is rarely addressed in European studies
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