Friends in Our Lives: Perspectives of Young People Who Participated in a Professional Mentoring Program

Authors

• Kristian Jones, University of Washington
• Karryn Satchell, University of Washington
• Lakindra Mitchell Dove, Portland State UniversityFollow
• Julissa Muñiz, University of California Los Angeles
• Erik Hulman, University of Washington, Seattle
• J Mark Eddy, University of Texas at Austin
• Kevin Haggerty, University of Washington, Seattle
• Deborah Cohen, University of Washington, Seattle
• Martie Skinner, University of Washington, Seattle
• Koren Hanson, University of Washington, Seattle

Author ORCID Identifier(s)

Kristian Jones (0000-0002-6327-8048)

Published In

Journal of Applied Youth Studies

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-27-2025

Subjects

Mentoring Programs

Abstract

Mentoring programs are popular interventions to support holistic development for young people. One specific model of mentoring that has emerged over the past few decades in the United States is professional mentoring. Research has illustrated that this model of mentoring may be particularly helpful for young people who could benefit from extra support in their lives that a volunteer mentoring program does not have the capacity to provide. Despite the emerging utilization of professional mentoring programs, little is known about the ideal characteristics of a professional mentor and young people's experiences in these professional mentoring programs. This study interviewed 12 young people who participated in the same professional mentoring program in different regions of the United States. The participants discussed their ideal characteristics in a mentor, highlighted factors that made the professional mentoring program impactful to them, and shared their ideas on how to improve the overall program.

Rights

Copyright (c) 2026 The Authors

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.1007/s43151-025-00189-8

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/44604

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Citation Details

Jones, K., Satchell, K., Mitchell Dove, L., Muñiz, J., Hulman, E., Eddy, J. M., Haggerty, K., Cohen, D., Skinner, M., & Hanson, K. (2025). Friends in Our Lives: Perspectives of Young People Who Participated in a Professional Mentoring Program. Journal of Applied Youth Studies.