Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/232849 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 14097
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
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.
Subjects: 
mentoring
disadvantaged youths
adolescence
school performance
patience
social skills
labor-market orientation
field experiment
JEL: 
I24
J24
H52
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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