Big Brothers Big Sisters’ one-to-one youth mentoring has been shown to have a significant and positive impact on the lives of children, according to the first-ever nationwide impact study of a mentoring organization.
During 1992 and 1993, Public/Private Ventures, a Philadelphia-based national research organization, looked at 959 boys and girls, ages 10 to 16, through Big Brothers Big Sisters agencies. Click here to read more about the study.
Researchers found that after 18 months of spending time with their Bigs, the Little Brothers and Little Sisters were:
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46% less likely to begin using illegal drugs
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27% less likely to begin using alcohol
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52% less likely to skip school
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37% less likely to skip a class
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minority boys and girls were 70% less likely than their peers to initiate drug use
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more confident of their performance in schoolwork
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one-third less likely to hit someone
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getting along better with their families
Click here to read more about the results.
According to the research, these one-to-one matches are such a powerful force for influencing children’s behavior because of Big Brothers Big Sisters’ signature approach to mentoring. Click here to read more about the Big Brothers Big Sisters Match.
The research found that Big Brothers Big Sisters offers a positive, broad-based program “that focuses less on specific problems after they occur, and more on meeting youths’ most basic developmental needs.” Click here to read more about the Impact.
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