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REVIEW article

Front. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry
Sec. Interventions for Adolescent Mental Health
Volume 4 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frcha.2025.1509971
This article is part of the Research Topic Dismantling Disparities: Advancing Mental Healthcare Access for Diverse Youth View all articles

A Scoping Review of Therapeutic Mentoring for Youth Mental Health

Provisionally accepted
Alexandra Werntz Alexandra Werntz 1*Jean Rhodes Jean Rhodes 1Hannah Brockstein Hannah Brockstein 2Lindsay Fallon Lindsay Fallon 1Amy Cook Amy Cook 1
  • 1 University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, United States
  • 2 Ohio University, Athens, West Virginia, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Introduction: Therapeutic mentoring, which leverages paraprofessional care, is a potential way to scale access to care to address the youth mental health crisis. This scoping review synthesizes the current state of research on self-designated therapeutic mentoring programs for youth mental health. Method: A systematic search was conducted across four databases using the term "therapeutic mento*" and related keywords, taking a label-first approach to describe the available literature. Inclusion criteria were peer-reviewed articles about research on therapeutic mentoring in the US, written in English. Data were extracted on study characteristics, intervention details, mentor background, and outcomes. Results: Eighteen empirical articles were identified, published between 2003 and 2024. Most studies focused on at-risk youth from diverse backgrounds. Therapeutic mentoring programming varied, although most (N = 13) studies examined the Campus Connections program. Mentors were typically trained paraprofessionals or undergraduate students supervised by clinical professionals. Only two randomized controlled trials were found, both of the Campus Connections program. Discussion: The review revealed a lack of rigorous experimental studies on therapeutic mentoring efficacy, as defined by studies that use the term therapeutic mentoring. While some studies showed promising effects, more research is needed to establish the definition of therapeutic mentoring and whether it is an acceptable and effective intervention for youth mental health. Conclusion: A clear definition of therapeutic mentoring is needed to advance the field and facilitate systematic evaluation of its effectiveness in supporting youth mental health. Future research should prioritize developing program models that align with diverse youth’s cultural values, conducting randomized controlled trials, examining program components, and developing standardized measures for assessing therapeutic mentoring outcomes.

    Keywords: scoping review1, youth mental health2, at-risk youth3, mentoring4, therapeutic mentoring5

    Received: 11 Oct 2024; Accepted: 14 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Werntz, Rhodes, Brockstein, Fallon and Cook. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Alexandra Werntz, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.