engleski

Aspects of natural mentoring relationships and adolescent positive development

The goal of this paper was to examine and describe the characteristics of natural mentors and characteristics and functions of natural mentoring relationships. According to the Model for the Influence of Mentoring Relationships on adolescent development (Rhodes et al., 2006), we hypothesized three main functions of natural mentoring relationship for adolescents, namely support for psychological well-being, positive identity, and cognitive well-being. The data were collected from 277 high school students (56% female, M =16.53 years). They answered open-ended questions about the situations and places where they meet with their natural mentors, topics they discuss with them, and their most common topics of conflict. Adolescents also described the ways in which natural mentors help them in their everyday lives. Their answers were coded and structured into themes with thematic analysis. The findings show that more than half of the natural mentors in this study are relatives with adolescents and adolescents see them at family gatherings or when visiting each other’s homes. The most common topics of conversation are school, common interests, or the youths’ friends and friendships. Although conflicts with natural mentors were shown to be rare, the most common discussions were about certain behaviour or lifestyle choices. The forms of support were, as expected, divided into three main categories – support for psychological well- being, positive identity, and cognitive well- being. This research confirms the Model of the Influence of Mentoring Relationships and gives important new insights into the context of natural mentoring relationships in Croatia.

Natural Mentors, Well-being, Positive Youth Development

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