Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 25(4), 207–216 C  2010 The Division for Learning Disabilities of the Council for Exceptional Children Naturally Acquired Mentoring Relationships and Young Adult Outcomes Among Adolescents with Learning Disabilities Kym Ahrens University of Washington Seattle/Children’s Hospital and Research Institute David Lane DuBois University of Illinois, Chicago Paula Lozano and Laura P. Richardson University of Washington Seattle/Children’s Hospital and Research Institute We evaluated whether having a naturally acquired mentor during adolescence was associated with improved adult outcomes among youth with learning disabilities (YLD). Mentored youth were more likely to have graduated from high school, reported a higher level of self-esteem, and reported a higher overall number of positive outcomes than nonmentored youth. Mentorship by teachers/guidance counselors was associated with larger differences in high school graduation rates and self-esteem compared to nonmentored youth whereas mentorship by nonteachers was associated with smaller changes in self-esteem and no differences in high school completion rates. Future research should include more in-depth, objective assessments of youths’ learning disabilities, consideration of interactions with concurrent risk factors, and efforts to clarify optimal strategies for mentoring support of YLD. Mentoring relationships with nonparental adults are widely regarded as an important asset for promoting positive youth development and preparedness for successful transition to adulthood (America’s Promise Alliance, 2006). Theory de- veloped by Jean Rhodes and colleagues posits that once a bond is formed between a mentor and youth that involves trust, empathy and mutuality, the relationship has the poten- tial to produce improvements in the youth’s socioemotional, cognitive, and identity development (Rhodes, 2002, 2005; Rhodes, Spencer, Keller, Liang, & Noam, 2006). Gains in socioemotional development, in turn, are hypothesized to also produce improvements in relationships with parents and peers. These developmental and social gains are theorized to then contribute to positive outcomes such as academic perfor- mance, emotional well-being, and avoidance of involvement in problem behavior. Several different types of support have been suggested to mediate improvements in youth function- ing that accrue from mentoring relationships, including role- modeling, emotional support, guidance/advice, and tangible or instrumental assistance with tasks such as school work or finding employment (America’s Promise Alliance, 2006; McDonald, Erickson, Johnson, & Elder, 2007). Rhodes and colleagues (Rhodes, 2002, 2005; Rhodes et al., 2006) have also proposed that the effects of mentoring relationships may be moderated by several factors, including the length and quality of the relationship and the type of mentor. Requests for reprints should be sent to Kym R. Ahrens, Department of Pe- diatrics, University of Washington/Seattle Children’s Hospital and Research Institute, 1100 Olive Way, Suite 500, Mailstop 8–1, Seattle, WA 98101. Electronic enquiries should be sent to kym.ahrens@seattlechildrens.org. In line with these theoretical perspectives, two recent meta-analyses found evidence that mentoring relationships for youth are associated with more favorable outcomes in a range of different areas (DuBois, Holloway, Valentine, & Cooper, 2002; Eby, Allen, Evans, Ng, & DuBois, 2008). Based on synthesis of findings from 40 studies comparing mentored and nonmentored youth, Eby et al. (2008) found that mentoring relationships were associated with signifi- cantly more favorable scores on measures of attitudes to- ward school, interpersonal relations, behavioral performance (e.g., academic achievement), and withdrawal behavior (e.g., skipping school). In their synthesis of 55 studies evaluat- ing the effects of youth mentoring programs, DuBois et al. (2002) similarly found that mentored youth scored signifi- cantly higher on measures in each of the following domains: emotional/psychological, problem/high-risk behavior, social competence, academic/educational, and career/employment. In both studies, associations between mentoring and youth outcomes were modest in magnitude and generally did not exceed Cohen’s suggested criteria for small effects (r = .10 or d-index of standardized mean differences = .20). In ac- cordance with theory noted above, however, DuBois and col- leagues (2002) did find that associations with positive out- comes were stronger for youth in programs who experienced higher-quality mentoring relationships based on criteria such as greater duration and more frequent contact, thus offering support for relationship factors as moderators of mentoring benefits as noted above. These investigators also found more favorable estimated effects on outcomes when programs tar- geted mentors with backgrounds in helping roles or profes- sions (DuBois et al., 2002). In other research, mentoring re- lationships with teachers in particular have been found to be