We close this volume with a final commentary from two leaders in the mentoring field. Rhodes and Spencer articulate how the contributions to this volume offer a richer, more complex rendering of relational styles and processes than has been laid out previously in the mentoring literature. They suggest that these efforts should provoke discussion…

Mentoring programs pose some special challenges for quality assessment because they operate at two levels: that of the dyadic relationship and that of the program. Fully assessing the quality of youth mentoring relationships requires understanding the characteristics and processes of individual relationships, which are the point of service for…

The psychotherapy literature has much to offer as educators strive to develop deeper and more nuanced understandings of the relationships youth form with mentors and other nonparental adults in community- and school-based settings. At the center of both psychotherapy and relationship-based interventions such as mentoring is a human connection, the…