circumstantial and conditional truths families and the mentoring relationship

1. Circumstantial and conditional truths Families and the mentoring relationship Janet Shucksmith Professor in Public Health University of Teesside j.shucksmith@tees.ac.uk

3. �Snakes and ladders� Pawson�s review (2004) as part of work of ESRC UK Centre for Evidence Based Policy and Practice �The review..is not in the verdict business..Decision makers need to understand that evidence does not yield a thumbs up or thumbs down for mentoring, but only circumstantial and conditional truths.�

4. �Snakes and ladders� Pawson�s definitions of the different types of mentoring identified in his review: Identity mentoring Starts with emotional contact, engages with ideas of mentees, builds resilience, encourages mentee to shift from hostility to calm to aspiration Achievement mentoring Promotes gains in status, entry into insider network, escape from marginal activities and outsider status Engagement mentoring Aims to encourage �shifts in fortitude and fortune�, requires movement along both status group and reference group axes

5. �Snakes and ladders� Identity mentoring involves reference group change (9 to 3) Achievement mentoring involves status group change (3 to 1) Engagement mentoring involves both status and reference group change (9 to 1 ) � Pawson�s model illustrates why engagement mentoring may be the hardest of the types to achieve � the long move from the least powerful status at 9 may not occur on the diagonal, but is more likely to involve, as Pawson puts it, �emotional lift before positional shift�. In other words, young people in the most extreme outside position and antagonistic to the enterprise may need to be developed through identity mentoring before they have a realistic chance of improving their outsider status. Simple engagement mentoring schemes that involve a meeting of an hour a week with a poorly trained mentor are, as he notes, unlikely to put right or compensate for �lives scarred by poverty and lack of opportunity�. Identity mentoring involves reference group change (9 to 3) Achievement mentoring involves status group change (3 to 1) Engagement mentoring involves both status and reference group change (9 to 1 ) � Pawson�s model illustrates why engagement mentoring may be the hardest of the types to achieve � the long move from the least powerful status at 9 may not occur on the diagonal, but is more likely to involve, as Pawson puts it, �emotional lift before positional shift�. In other words, young people in the most extreme outside position and antagonistic to the enterprise may need to be developed through identity mentoring before they have a realistic chance of improving their outsider status. Simple engagement mentoring schemes that involve a meeting of an hour a week with a poorly trained mentor are, as he notes, unlikely to put right or compensate for �lives scarred by poverty and lack of opportunity�.

6. �Snakes and ladders� Simple engagement mentoring schemes that involve a meeting of an hour a week with a poorly trained mentor are, as he notes, unlikely to put right or compensate for �lives scarred by poverty and lack of opportunity�.

7. Links with social capital theorising? Gillies� (2003) characterisation of trends in family theorising atomistic, detraditionalising (pessimistic) democratising (optimistic) continuity (neutral?)

8. Links with social capital theorising?

9. Families � bridging or bonding? Extensions of original theory to include �bonding� and �bridging� social capital Can relate this to horizontal and vertical movements in Pawson�s game of snakes and ladders

10. Families � bridging or bonding? Bourdieu � family members with access to symbolic and material resources draw in these capitals to cement advantage and transmit benefits to children In contrast, social capital possessed by the materially disadvantaged enables survival but offers little opportunity for increasing prosperity Ref Rob Macdonald and Tracy Shildrick�s work at last seminar Re Rob and tracy�s work evidence that strong bonding socila capiatl in disadvantaged communities and that this v necessary for survival, e.g. non monetary exchanges, childcare, loans, favours, but this almost inimical to operation outside this zoneRe Rob and tracy�s work evidence that strong bonding socila capiatl in disadvantaged communities and that this v necessary for survival, e.g. non monetary exchanges, childcare, loans, favours, but this almost inimical to operation outside this zone

11. Does mentoring detach yp from family bonds? It might be a dangerous temptation for mentoring projects to feel that abstraction of the child/young person from dysfunctional or very disadvantaged family circumstances - the �ladder out of the pit� - was a quick way to achieve Pawson�s �uplift� from antagonism and antipathy What proportion of youth mentoring schemes aim to �treat� the young person outside his/her family environment?

12. Mentoring supporting family attachments We know that having strong family attachments is one of the key factors in building resilience in a young person, even if - to the outside eye � that relationship is less than perfect Evidence from our JRF study that mentoring relationships can be complementary to family relationships and can even provide encouragement and some skills to hang onto or improve those family relationships

13. Mentoring supporting family attachments In Aberdeen study yp identified mothers as most important people within their social networks, even where family relationships difficult and where yp being cared for elsewhere

14. Mentoring supporting family attachments Sarah on her mother: Her parental boundaries aren�t good enough and she�s not like suitable to look after me or my sister�. Your mum is your mum. You fall out with your mum, so I would cope with it better now. I think it [the problems between them] was because my mam was so young and she had me so young. She is 32 and she had me at 16 or 17 so she didn�t have time to go out and be wild and that.

15. Mentoring supporting family attachments Project also found that mentoring provided young people with the skills to negotiate with parents, to rebuild relationships and where necessary, to seek support elsewhere. Relationships with key workers were complementary to family relationships, allowing yp to reflect on and revisit family issues. Discussion with mentors enabled yp to develop new insights into family problems In some cases, mentoring provided a template with which young people could negotiate with their families

16. Mentoring supporting family attachments Support for this in work of Rhodes, Grossman and Resch (2000) In their study mentees who reported most gains tended to be the ones who reported improved relationships at home �if parents feel involved in, as opposed to supplanted by the provision of additional adult support, they are likely to reinforce mentors� positive influences�. �It is probably one of the unsung early components in the affective relationship, marking the beginnings of the long haul of engagement mentoring.� (Pawson 2004: 34)

17. Overall conclusion Mentoring can support and improve dysfunctional parent-child relations and this ought to be one of the aspects of a young person�s life which mentoring seeks to sustain rather than supplant.