Mentoring Relationship Quality and Maltreated Children's Coping

Introduction: Maltreated children placed in foster care are disproportionately exposed to numerous adverse childhood experiences (e.g., abuse, neglect, chronic instability), which are frequently associated with increased mental health and behavioral problems. These problems often persist into adulthood, disrupting developmental trajectories and placing youth at-risk for various difficulties including substance use, incarceration, and homelessness. Coping strategies, however, are believed to protect against the harmful effects of uncontrollable stressors and promote maltreated children’s well-being. A quality relationship with a caring, non-parental adult, such as a mentor, may be one way to improve maltreated children’s use of healthy coping strategies.

Methods: The current study includes children who participated in a randomized controlled trial of a mentoring and skills-based intervention for 9-11-year-old maltreated children placed in foster care known as Fostering Healthy Futures. Because the current study assesses the impact of mentoring relationship quality, only children who were assigned to the intervention group (n = 154) were included. Hierarchical regression was used to assess the association between children’s reports of their relationship with their mentor at the end of the intervention and the frequency of four coping strategies (i.e., active, support-seeking, avoidance, and distraction) six months after the intervention (T2), while accounting for baseline (T1) coping strategies, adverse childhood events, relationship quality with current caregiver, and child demographics.

Results: Above and beyond the covariates, better mentoring relationship quality was associated with children’s greater use of active coping, F (6, 105) = 10.18, p = .000, support-seeking coping, F (6, 105) = 4.67, p = .000, avoidance coping, F (6, 105) = 5.91, p = .000, and distraction coping, F (6, 105) = 4.07, p = .001 six months after the intervention ended.

Conclusions: Findings suggest that despite all the adverse experiences and trauma maltreated children in foster care face, it is possible to improve coping six months after the intervention through a better relationship with a mentor. Prevention efforts that focus on enhancing mentoring relationship quality may promote maltreated children’s use of coping strategies.