Can Mentoring Alleviate Family Disadvantage in Adolescence? A Field Experiment to Improve Labor-Market Prospects

Sven Resnjanskij, Jens Ruhose (), Simon Wiederhold () and Ludger Woessmann

No 14097, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We study a mentoring program that aims to improve the labor-market prospects of school- attending adolescents from disadvantaged families by offering them a university-student mentor. Our RCT investigates program effectiveness on three outcome dimensions that are highly predictive of adolescents' later labor-market success: math grades, patience/social skills, and labor-market orientation. For low-SES adolescents, the one-to-one mentoring increases a combined index of the outcomes by half a standard deviation after one year, with significant increases in each dimension. Part of the treatment effect is mediated by establishing mentors as attachment figures who provide guidance for the future. The mentoring is not effective for higher-SES adolescents. The results show that substituting lacking family support by other adults can help disadvantaged children at adolescent age.

Keywords: mentoring; disadvantaged youths; adolescence; school performance; patience; social skills; labor-market orientation; field experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H52 I24 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 130 pages
Date: 2021-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lma
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (22)

Forthcoming - published in: Journal of Political Economy , 2024, 132 (3), 1013-1062

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Related works:
Journal Article: Can Mentoring Alleviate Family Disadvantage in Adolescence? A Field Experiment to Improve Labor Market Prospects (2024)
Working Paper: Can Mentoring Alleviate Family Disadvantage in Adolscence? A Field Experiment to Improve Labor-Market Prospects (2021)
Working Paper: Can Mentoring Alleviate Family Disadvantage in Adolescence? A Field Experiment to Improve Labor-Market Prospects (2021)
Working Paper: Can Mentoring Alleviate Family Disadvantage in Adolescence? A Field Experiment to Improve Labor-Market Prospects (2021)
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