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Washington State Institute for Public Policy
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Great Life Mentoring (formerly 4Results Mentoring)

Children's Mental Health: Other
  Literature review updated November 2018.

Great Life Mentoring (formerly 4Results Mentoring) is a mentoring program for youth receiving outpatient mental health care for a range of diagnoses. Youth are referred to the program by their therapist as part of their treatment program. Volunteer mentors meet with youth for 2-3 hours per week for at least one year. Mentoring goals are to promote stability and reduce social isolation for youth and to reinforce behaviors and strategies learned in therapy. In the study included in this analysis, youth were 7 to 18 years old and had a range of diagnoses including attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression, anxiety, conduct disorders, trauma, and others. On average, participants remained in their mentoring relationship for three years.
 
ALL
META-ANALYSIS
CITATIONS

Meta-analysis is a statistical method to combine the results from separate studies on a program, policy, or topic to estimate its effect on an outcome. WSIPP systematically evaluates all credible evaluations we can locate on each topic. The outcomes measured are the program impacts measured in the research literature (for example, impacts on crime or educational attainment). Treatment N represents the total number of individuals or units in the treatment group across the included studies.

An effect size (ES) is a standard metric that summarizes the degree to which a program or policy affects a measured outcome. If the effect size is positive, the outcome increases. If the effect size is negative, the outcome decreases. See Estimating Program Effects Using Effect Sizes for additional information on how we estimate effect sizes.

The effect size may be adjusted from the unadjusted effect size estimated in the meta-analysis. Historically, WSIPP adjusted effect sizes to some programs based on the methodological characteristics of the study. For programs reviewed in 2024 or later, we do not make additional adjustments, and we use the unadjusted effect size whenever we run a benefit-cost analysis.

Research shows the magnitude of effects may change over time. For those effect sizes, we estimate outcome-based adjustments, which we apply between the first time ES is estimated and the second time ES is estimated. More details about these adjustments can be found in our Technical Documentation.

Meta-Analysis of Program Effects
Outcomes measured No. of effect sizes Treatment N Effect sizes (ES) and standard errors (SE) Unadjusted effect size (random effects model)
ES SE Age ES p-value
Global functioning
How well individuals (typically those who are developmentally disabled or seriously mentally ill) have adapted to activities of daily living.
 9 1 66 0.606 0.178 10 0.606 0.001

Citations Used in the Meta-Analysis

DuBois, D.L., Herrera, C., & Higley, E. (2018). Investigation of the reach and effectiveness of a mentoring program for youth receiving outpatient mental health services. Children and Youth Services Review, 91, 85-93.