Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-1-2025
Publication Title
Journal of Social Work Practice
Pages
1-28
Publisher Name
Taylor & Francis
Abstract
This study investigates instructor activities that 158 adolescent mentors of community children found meaningful in the context of their under-resourced urban communities. Theoretical frameworks draw from trauma theory, self-psychology, and community cultural wealth. Data include field notes, peer-to-peer program evaluation interviews, exit interviews, focus groups, and notes from clinical seminars for instructors. Mentors found instructor support vital for developing their empathy, especially with mentees behaving counter to expectations. Mentors also valued instructors’ authentic, supportive responses to stressors and feedback about the mentors’ positive impacts with mentees. As constructive social networks were formed, the program deepened the social capital form of community cultural wealth. From a self-psychology perspective, deepening mentor’s empathy occurred through iterative processes of instructor support and advice, experiences interacting with mentees and evaluating mentees’ responsiveness, and instructors’ affirmation of mentors’ competence and importance to mentees. Adolescents’ perspectives offer rich insights for optimizing social service provision, especially for marginalized youth.
Recommended Citation
Tyson McCrea, Katherine; Miller, Kevin M.; Moore, Amzie; Richards, Maryse; Donnelly, William; Watson, Heather L.; Denton, Dreyce; and Smith, Tamera. “Mentors Need Mentors”: The Perspectives of Adolescent Cross-age Mentors of Color about their Instructors’ Supports. Journal of Social Work Practice, , : 1-28, 2025. Retrieved from Loyola eCommons, Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02650533.2025.2494526
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Copyright Statement
© Group for the Advancement of Psychodynamics and Psychotherapy in Social Work, 2025.
Author Manuscript
This is a pre-publication author manuscript of the final, published article.
Comments
Author Posting. © Group for the Advancement of Psychodynamics and Psychotherapy in Social Work, 2025. This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Social Work Practice on May 1, 2025, available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/02650533.2025.2494526.