The effectiveness of providing training and ongoing support to foster cultural humility in volunteers serving as mentors to youth of color: a mixed-methods study protocol.

Background: The aim of this randomized control trial is to test the impact of providing additional training and support to volunteers who are paired with youth of color in the Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) community-based mentoring program. The aim of the intervention activities is to enhance the capacity of mentors to have more culturally responsive and informed interactions with their mentees of color, thereby strengthening the youth's ethnic/racial identity and abilities to both cope with experiences of racism and contribute to causes that advance social justice.

Methods: Recruitment started in June 2022, with a goal of enrolling 240 dyads (i.

Childhood predictors of high school sport participation and effects of participation on young adult activity and mental health.

Introduction: In the United States, sport is a common form of youth physical activity (PA) with demonstrated health benefits. However, limited longitudinal dataexists on the psychosocial determinants and consequences of youth sport participation. This study examined grade 6 (11-12-year-old) predictors of high school organized sport participation and effects of high school sport participation on age 26 behavior, mental health and wellbeing.

Cultural humility development in adults serving as mentors for youth: A qualitative evidence synthesis.

This qualitative review synthesizes evidence regarding how cultural humility (i.e., critical self-reflection, challenging inequity) may be influenced by the experience of serving as a mentor in a youth program.

Preventing substance use among urban, African American youth: The potential of mentor-mentee conversations.

Background: Early adolescence is a critical time for preventing substance use onset. Mentoring can help protect youth via social influence; however, little is currently known about direct mentor-mentee interactions around substance use. To investigate this topic, interviews were conducted with mentors to explore their comfort with, and perceived barriers and facilitators to, discussions about substance use with youth mentees.

Identification of Important Factors When Measuring School Climate: Latent Construct Validation and Exploration.

Background: Researchers regularly must decide what information is necessary to understand school climate and how to include climate in a study. For example, which factors and/or scales should be used, is using just 1 scale for school climate sufficient, and to what extent does the selection of a single scale influence the research findings?

Aims: Understanding what factors to consider and which available scales to review will assist those interested in measuring school climate.

Methods: This study explores 8 validated scales related to school climate.

Identifying predictors of psychological well-being among volunteer mentors in Big Brothers Big Sisters.

Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) facilitates mentoring relationships between youth and volunteer mentors. Although research has examined outcomes for youth in BBBS, relatively less investigation has been undertaken for volunteer outcomes. This study explored factors associated with changes in psychological well-being among BBBS volunteer mentors.

HOOK-FTS-HIP Complex is Critical for Secretory Organelle Discharge during Motility, Invasion, and Egress.

Members of the Apicomplexa phylum possess specialized secretory organelles that discharge, apically and in a timely regulated manner, key factors implicated in parasite motility, host cell invasion, egress and subversion of host cellular functions. The mechanisms regulating trafficking and apical docking of these secretory organelles are only partially elucidated. Here, we characterized two conserved endosomal trafficking regulators known to promote vesicle transport and/or fusion, HOOK and Fused Toes (FTS), in the context of organelle discharge in Toxoplasma gondii.

Deep Learning Body Region Classification of MRI and CT Examinations.

This study demonstrates the high performance of deep learning in identification of body regions covering the entire human body from magnetic resonance (MR) and computed tomography (CT) axial images across diverse acquisition protocols and modality manufacturers. Pixel-based analysis of anatomy contained in image sets can provide accurate anatomic labeling. For this purpose, a convolutional neural network (CNN)-based classifier was developed to identify body regions in CT and MRI studies.

Pathways by which case managers' match support influences youth mentoring outcomes: Testing the systemic model of youth mentoring.

Keller's systemic model of youth mentoring posits there are multiple pathways through which all stakeholders in the youth mentoring process, including the program staff who support the match (or case managers), influence youth outcomes. This study examines case managers' direct and indirect contributions to match outcomes and tests how transitive interactions facilitate a theorized sequence of mentoring interactions to effect greater closeness and length, specifically in nontargeted mentoring programs. A structural equations model of case manager contributions to match outcomes was tested using data from 758 mentor-mentee matches, supported by 73 case managers across seven mentoring agencies.

Are adults influenced by the experience of mentoring youth? A scoping review.

Aims: A relatively large body of research exists on the effectiveness of mentoring programs directed at youth and numerous syntheses of this literature have proven useful for advancing both research and practice. Less studied, but also important is the potential for adults serving in the role of mentor to young persons to be influenced by this experience. A scoping review was conducted with the aim of identifying and critically assessing major trends in the methods and findings in this literature.

Mechanisms of Influence on Youth Substance Use for a Social-Emotional and Character Development Program: A Theory-Based Approach.

The Theory of Triadic Influence (TTI) provides a comprehensive framework for understanding adolescent substance use. We examined mechanisms by which a TTI-guided social-emotional and character development program, (), influences adolescent substance use. Study data come from the -Chicago, longitudinal matched-pairs cluster-randomized control trial.

Reconsidering the effectiveness of mentoring for prevention of juvenile criminal recidivism: A brief comment on systematic review and meta-analysis of noninstitutional psychosocial interventions to prevent juvenile criminal recidivism (Olsson et al., 2021).

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.

A Scoping Review of the Use of Social and Behavioral Change in Acute Care Antimicrobial Stewardship Initiatives.

Antimicrobial stewardship (AS) initiatives are implemented with a goal of reducing antimicrobial resistance. It is unknown exactly how many acute care AS initiatives have since been based on social and behavioral theory. The purpose of this scoping review is to provide an updated review of theory-informed acute care AS initiatives in the published literature, including how social and behavioral theories have been used in the described interventions.

E-Mentoring to Address Youth Health: A Systematic Review.

Unlabelled: Electronic mentoring (e-mentoring), the integration of digital technology in mentoring relationships, has recently grown in popularity; however, the effectiveness of e-mentoring in addressing youth health has not been synthesized to date. The current study synthesizes the literature on e-mentoring to affect the health and well-being of youth (10-24 years) through a systematic review and evidence quality assessment. A total of 833 records were identified, of which 14 met eligibility criteria (published in English since 1995, targeted youth health and/or youth with health issues, and communication was entirely digital or combined with in-person interaction).

Untargeted Metabolomics Uncovers the Essential Lysine Transporter in .

Apicomplexan parasites are responsible for devastating diseases, including malaria, toxoplasmosis, and cryptosporidiosis. Current treatments are limited by emerging resistance to, as well as the high cost and toxicity of existing drugs. As obligate intracellular parasites, apicomplexans rely on the uptake of many essential metabolites from their host.

Mentoring in the Time of COVID-19: An Analysis of Online Focus Groups with Mentors to Youth.

This study explored the experiences of mentors to youth during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study aims were to examine (1) the role of the pandemic on mentor-mentee interactions and relationships and (2) the ways in which mentors could be supported during the health crisis to better meet youth needs. Six online focus groups were conducted with 39 mentors.

Mentoring Young African American Men and Transgender Women Who Have Sex With Men on Sexual Health: Formative Research for an HIV Mobile Health Intervention for Mentors.

Background: African American men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender women bear a disproportionate burden of HIV. Young MSM account for 75% of this burden for youth. When youths lack socially protective resources such as strong networks of adults, including parents, teachers, or community members, mentors may play a critical role in promoting health behaviors.

Childhood Protective Factors and a Prevention Program Reduce Later Problem Behaviors.

Prior research has yet to elucidate how constellations of protective factors in childhood and prevention efforts simultaneously may influence youth involvement in problem behaviors across different points in development. The current study examines how latent classes of social and emotional learning (SEL) skills, parent-child relationships, and peer influences in third grade and receipt of an ongoing SEL intervention predict substance use and violence in fifth and eighth grade. The urban, predominantly low-income, sample ( = 1,169) was nested in 14 schools that were randomly assigned to the program or business-as-usual.

The psychology of luxury consumption.

This review synthesizes the latest advances in the psychology behind consumption of luxury objects and experiences to which people typically feel strongly attached. We discuss novel drivers, forms, and consequences of luxury consumption from recent research. We propose that the psychology of luxury consumption is governed by a set of tensions between what luxury means to the self and the external forces that define luxury consumption.

Improving understanding of how mentoring works: Measuring multiple intervention processes.

The objective is to develop and test dimensionality and validity of a new measure of five mentoring intervention processes drawn from emphases across prior mentoring efforts that might be the basis for effects: identification with the mentor, social and emotional support, teaching and education, and advocacy, and shared time and activity. Partial validation of value was drawn from moderation role in a meta-analysis of mentoring (Tolan, Henry, Lovegrove, Schoeny, & Nichols, 2014. J.

Influence of program staff on quality of relationships in a community-based youth mentoring program.

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.

Helping me helps us: The role of natural mentors in the ethnic identity and academic outcomes of Latinx adolescents.

This research investigated the potential contributions of natural mentoring relationships and ethnic identity to the academic attitudes and performance of Latinx high school students. In a sample of 347 urban Latinx students in grades 9 and 10, analyses examined the presence and quality of mentoring relationships as well as ethnic identity exploration and affirmation as predictors of changes in grade point average and the perceived economic value of education. Analyses included tests for a hypothesized role of ethnic identity in mediating associations of mentoring measures with the academic outcomes.

Predictors of mentoring relationship quality: Investigation from the perspectives of youth and parent participants in Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada one-to-one mentoring programs.

Aims: This study examined predictors of mentoring relationship quality (MRQ) as reported by youth and parents participating in Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) of Canada one-to-one mentoring programs.

Methods: Mentoring program capacity and other external supports, youth personal and environmental risk, youth and parent attitudes and motives, and mentoring relationship processes and attributes were examined as predictors of MRQ at 18 months following youth referral to the program using data from a longitudinal study of the Canadian BBBS mentoring programs.

Results: For youth (n = 335), significant predictors of MRQ included: minimal difficulties pairing youth and mentors, perceptions of shared attributes with their mentor, mentor emotional engagement and support, and longer relationships.