What Works in Youth Development

Systematic Reviews

The Ministry of Youth Development, in partnership with the Health Research Council of New Zealand, have issued a series of systematic reviews.

This series of pragmatic policy and practice-focused reviews will improve the base of evidence, build research capacity and capability and guide service delivery and policy-making in the youth development sector. The systematic reviews cover the following three topics:

•  Mentoring and young people
•  The impact of youth work for young people
•  Social marketing for young people

These reviews provide systematic evidence of what works for youth development outcomes. PDF copies of the reviews are available for download below.

The impact of youth work for young people

What Works in Social Marketing for Youth?

The Effectiveness of Youth Mentoring Programmes in New Zealand

Of interest to those in the youth sector who wish to add or enhance, a mentoring component to their work with young people, is a review published by the Ministry of Youth Development (MYD). This paper considered the body of New Zealand-based research and evaluation on youth mentoring and drew conclusions as to ‘what works' in youth-focused mentoring interventions.

The review, entitled The Effectiveness of Youth Mentoring Programmes in New Zealand, found that the majority (88%) of the programmes showed some level of effectiveness.

Findings included that:

• programmes that focused on psychological and interpersonal goals were more effective than those focused on educational, behavioural, vocational or cultural goals
• there were a number of programme characteristics that most impacted on effectiveness. The most successful programmes had been evaluated; were aware of best practice; used peers as mentors; and/or had a well-researched and expected length of mentor-mentee relationship.

The review did note that there was a variable quality of New Zealand-based evidence of youth mentoring effectiveness. For instance, of the 23 active youth mentoring programmes they reviewed, only 35% had conducted evaluations.

The review was co-funded by MYD and the Partnership Programme of the Health Research Council of New Zealand. The research was undertaken by a team led by Dr Susan Farrugia (Faculty of Education, University of Auckland) in collaboration with the Youth Mentoring Network.