Interventions implemented outside of the juvenile justice system are widely utilized with youth offenders to decrease the likelihood of future offending and justice system involvement, both of which ...are well-documented as being costly to youth and society at large. Olsson et al. (2021) conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of these types of interventions for youth aged 12-17 and failed to find any of the interventions examined to be more effective than control treatments in reducing future criminality. This commentary further examines the evidence for one of these interventions, mentoring, based on an expanded search of the literature that identified several additional studies of mentoring for recidivism prevention that meet the eligibility criteria utilized by Olsson et al. A meta-analysis of these studies and those identified by Olsson et al. finds mentoring to be more effective than control treatments (typically services as usual within the juvenile justice system): risk difference between groups of 0.09 (random effect model; 95% confidence interval .03-.15). This reanalysis thus indicates greater promise for mentoring as a tool in reducing juvenile crime and juvenile justice system involvement than was suggested by the results of Olsson et al. Importantly, it also underscores the potential for the results of meta-analyses to be sensitive to not only unidentified studies with null or negative results (the so-called "file-drawer problem") but also missed studies with positive findings. Recommendations for literature search procedures in systematic reviews and sensitivity analyses in meta-analyses are provided with this concern in mind.
The study of mentoring has generally been conducted within disciplinary silos with a specific type of mentoring relationship as a focus. The purpose of this article is to quantitatively review the ...three major areas of mentoring research (youth, academic, workplace) to determine the overall effect size associated with mentoring outcomes for protégés. We also explored whether the relationship between mentoring and protégé outcomes varied by the type of mentoring relationship (youth, academic, workplace). Results demonstrate that mentoring is associated with a wide range of favorable behavioral, attitudinal, health-related, relational, motivational, and career outcomes, although the effect size is generally small. Some differences were also found across type of mentoring. Generally, larger effect sizes were detected for academic and workplace mentoring compared to youth mentoring. Implications for future research, theory, and applied practice are provided.
Serological testing to evaluate antigen-specific antibodies in plasma is generally performed by rapid lateral flow test strips that lack quantitative results or by high complexity immunoassays that ...are time- and labor-intensive but provide semi-quantitative results. Here, we describe a novel application of biolayer interferometry for the rapid detection of antigen-specific antibody levels in plasma samples, and demonstrate its utility for quantification of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. Our biolayer interferometry immunosorbent assay (BLI-ISA) utilizes single-use biosensors in an automated "dip-and-read" format, providing real-time optical measurements of antigen loading, plasma antibody binding, and antibody isotype detection. Complete semi-quantitative results are obtained in less than 20 min. BLI-ISA meets or exceeds the performance of high complexity methods such as Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) and Chemiluminescent Immunoassay. Importantly, our method can be immediately implemented on existing BLI platforms for urgent COVID-19 studies, such as serosurveillance and the evaluation of vaccine candidates. In a broader sense, BLI-ISA can be developed as a novel diagnostic platform to evaluate antibodies and other biomolecules in clinical specimens.
Background: The Theory of Triadic Influence (TTI) provides a comprehensive framework for understanding adolescent substance use. Objectives: We examined mechanisms by which a TTI-guided ...social-emotional and character development program, Positive Action (PA), influences adolescent substance use. Study data come from the PA-Chicago, longitudinal matched-pairs cluster-randomized control trial. A diverse, dynamic cohort of approximately 1,200 students from 14 low-performing schools were assessed at eight points of time, between grades 3-8, across a six-year period. Students completed scales related to substance use, self-control, deviant peer affiliation, and school attachment, adapted from the Risk Behavior Survey, Social-Emotional and Character Development Scale, Conventional Friends Scale, and People in My Life Scale. After testing the overall effect of PA on substance use, we used latent growth modeling to assess whether effects on each outcome were mediated by longitudinal changes in three composite measures aligning with the TTIs three streams. Results: Students in PA schools reported fewer experiences with drinking, getting drunk, and overall substance use. In the multiple mediator models, significant indirect effects of PA on substance use via changes in self-control were evident. Conclusions/Importance: Findings are consistent with theory and past research suggesting the influence of self-control on youth substance use. Future studies should include implementation in different settings and additional theory-based measures.
Trial RegistrationThis trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01025674.
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Dostopno za:
DOBA, FSPLJ, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
In many mentoring programs, mentor–youth pairs have the latitude to engage in a wide range of activities together across varying community settings. Within this context, program staff are tasked with ...supporting development of high‐quality relationships between mentors and youth. To date, however, this role of program staff has been largely overlooked in research. The current study investigates potential contributions of program staff to mentoring relationships in the Big Brothers Big Sisters community‐based mentoring program over their first 15 months of relationship development with a sample of 450 mentor–youth pairs that were supported by 76 program staff across 10 agencies. Two‐level analyses (mentoring relationships nested within program staff) examined characteristics and approaches of program staff as prospective predictors of several facets of mentoring relationship quality as reported by youth: closeness, help with coping, youth‐centeredness, growth orientation, and attachment. Staff‐reported work engagement and emphasis on adherence to program guidelines as well as supervisor‐rated staff competence predicted more favorable mentoring relationship quality. By contrast, a nondirective approach to supporting mentors, as reported by staff, predicted lower relationship quality. These findings suggest that further investigation of program staff influences on mentoring relationship development could be fruitful and ultimately provide a basis for enhancing program effectiveness.
Schools can benefit from understanding how to use community volunteers to achieve academic goals. A randomized control evaluation, involving 1,139 students from 71 schools, of the school‐based ...mentoring program of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America found modest but statistically significant improvements in the teacher‐rated academic performance and self‐reported scholastic efficacy of mentored students. The present study explores the causal mechanism behind these effects. We find that a close relationship between mentor and protégé appears key to better academic outcomes. Because relationship closeness is not randomly assigned, we use two‐stage least squares and other methods to control for potential selection bias. The role of emotional closeness as a mediator of program effects is evident across mentoring relationships of various lengths and statuses. Students were more likely to feel close to their mentors in programs that included weekly meetings and opportunities for mentor–protégé pairs to interact outside of a large‐group setting.
There has been extensive debate among scholars and practitioners concerning whether self-beliefs influence academic achievement. To address this question, findings of longitudinal studies ...investigating the relation between self-beliefs and achievement were synthesized using meta-analysis. Estimated effects are consistent with a small, favorable influence of positive self-beliefs on academic achievement, with an average standardized path or regression coefficient of .08 for self-beliefs as a predictor of later achievement, controlling for initial levels of achievement. Stronger effects of self-beliefs are evident when assessing self-beliefs specific to the academic domain and when measures of self-beliefs and achievement are matched by domain (e.g., same subject area). Under these conditions, the relation of self-beliefs to later achievement meets or exceeds Cohen's (1988) definition of a small effect size.
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Dostopno za:
BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
We describe here the most ambitious survey currently planned in the optical, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). The LSST design is driven by four main science themes: probing dark energy and ...dark matter, taking an inventory of the solar system, exploring the transient optical sky, and mapping the Milky Way. LSST will be a large, wide-field ground-based system designed to obtain repeated images covering the sky visible from Cerro Pachón in northern Chile. The telescope will have an 8.4 m (6.5 m effective) primary mirror, a 9.6 deg2 field of view, a 3.2-gigapixel camera, and six filters (ugrizy) covering the wavelength range 320-1050 nm. The project is in the construction phase and will begin regular survey operations by 2022. About 90% of the observing time will be devoted to a deep-wide-fast survey mode that will uniformly observe a 18,000 deg2 region about 800 times (summed over all six bands) during the anticipated 10 yr of operations and will yield a co-added map to r ∼ 27.5. These data will result in databases including about 32 trillion observations of 20 billion galaxies and a similar number of stars, and they will serve the majority of the primary science programs. The remaining 10% of the observing time will be allocated to special projects such as Very Deep and Very Fast time domain surveys, whose details are currently under discussion. We illustrate how the LSST science drivers led to these choices of system parameters, and we describe the expected data products and their characteristics.
We used nationally representative data to examine the impact of natural (or informal) mentoring relationships on health-related outcomes among older adolescents and young adults.
We examined outcomes ...from Wave III of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health as a function of whether or not respondents reported a mentoring relationship. Logistic regression was used with control for demographic variables, previous level of functioning, and individual and environmental risk.
Respondents who reported a mentoring relationship were more likely to exhibit favorable outcomes relating to education/work (completing high school, college attendance, working >/= 10 hours a week), reduced problem behavior (gang membership, hurting others in physical fights, risk taking), psychological well-being (heightened self-esteem, life satisfaction), and health (physical activity level, birth control use). However, effects of exposure to individual and environmental risk factors generally were larger in magnitude than protective effects associated with mentoring.
These findings suggest a broad and multifaceted impact of mentoring relationships on adolescent health. However, mentoring relationships alone are not enough to meet the needs of at-risk youths and therefore should be incorporated into more comprehensive interventions.
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