Affective temperament and emotion regulation as predictors of clinical outcomes in women with idiopathic granulomatous mastitis.

Ecological systems () and positive youth development (PYD) () theories have had a major influence on the fields of developmental psychology, developmental psychopathology, and prevention science over the past several decades in the United States. Core to these theories is that human development is impacted not only by the individual characteristics of a child, but also by their relationships—with parents, teachers, and other adults, and with family and nonfamily peers—and by the social contexts that surround those relationships throughout their development from birth to adulthood. Consistent with these theories, but long before they were articulated, mentoring programmes have been created throughout the last century to provide supportive positive relationships for children as they develop. In the United States, youth mentoring programmes have often been employed as a means to provide support to children facing multiple challenges as they strive to achieve developmental outcomes (). Each year, an estimated 2.5 million children and adolescents are paired with caring adults through mentoring programmes (), and these programmes have shown promising PYD outcomes for at-risk youth in the areas of competence (academic/school-based outcomes, social skills, career development), confidence (self-esteem, self-cognition), connection (prosocial attitudes, connectedness to peers, family, and school), character (emotional/psychological well-being), caring/compassion (empathy, cooperation), and contribution (community/school service engagement) (). While mentoring programmes can take different forms, most match an adult with a youth to spend regular one-on-one time together in community settings over a predetermined length of time (often 1 year or less) (). Central to all mentor–mentee relationships is the frequency, duration, and consistency of meetings, which have been shown to influence both the quality of the relationship and perceived levels of trust and closeness (). Review of mentoring programmes meeting high evaluation metrics show positive outcomes on a variety of measures (e.g. ; ; ), yet these same studies report that the gains made during mentoring have largely dissipated at follow-up assessments. The short duration of most youth mentoring programmes is not consistent with the focus of ecological systems theory on development over the entirety of childhood yet, maintaining a positive, supportive relationship across developmental stages is challenging. Most adult mentors in the United States are part-time volunteers; other mentors receive small stipends, and a very few are hired to work full time as professional mentors. These systemic challenges of mentoring programmes were highlighted with the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, beginning an unprecedented test for the endurance of mentoring relationships founded on frequent, consistent interactions with youth. This study seeks to assess how a professional mentoring programme was adapted during the pandemic to ensure continued provision of the important tenets of mentor–mentee relationships shown to improve youth development.