Can mentoring alleviate family disadvantage in adolescence? : a field experiment to improve labor-market prospects
Sven Resnjanskij, Jens Ruhose, Simon Wiederhold, Ludger Woessmann
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.
Year of publication: |
February 2021
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Authors: | Resnjanskij, Sven ; Ruhose, Jens ; Wiederhold, Simon ; Woessmann, Ludger |
Publisher: |
Munich, Germany : CESifo, Center for Economic Studies & Ifo Institute |
Subject: | mentoring | disadvanted youths | adolescence | school performance | patience | social skills | labor-market orientation | field experiment | Coaching | Jugendliche | Youth | Feldforschung | Field research | Junge Arbeitskräfte | Young workers | Bildungsverhalten | Educational behaviour | Qualifikation | Occupational qualification | Bildungsertrag | Returns to education |
Saved in:
freely available
Extent: | 1 Online-Ressource (circa 131 Seiten) Illustrationen |
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Series: | CESifo working papers. - München : [Verlag nicht ermittelbar], ISSN 2364-1428, ZDB-ID 2065232-X. - Vol. no. 8870 (2021) |
Type of publication: | Book / Working Paper |
Type of publication (narrower categories): | Graue Literatur ; Non-commercial literature ; Arbeitspapier ; Working Paper |
Language: | English |
Other identifiers: | hdl:10419/232467 [Handle] |
Classification: | i24 ; J24 - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity ; H52 - Government Expenditures and Education |
Source: | ECONIS - Online Catalogue of the ZBW |
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012428915