Evaluation of a community-based mentoring program on psychosocial functioning of adolescents with a visual impairment: A randomized controlled trial

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

This study evaluated the efficacy of a mentoring program on improving psychosocial functioning of young people with a visual impairment (VI). Furthermore, the impact of experimentally matching mentees to mentors with or without VI on youth outcomes was examined. A total of 76 adolescents with VI (15–22 year; 46% boys) were randomized into a yearlong mentoring program (n = 51) or care-as-usual (n = 25). Mentoring involved one-on-one activities within community settings. Psychosocial functioning was improved in all participants during the study (d = 0.35–1.06); however, mentoring outperformed care-as-usual only for autonomy (95% CI: 0.003, 0.31; d = 0.44) and competence satisfaction (95% CI: 0.02, 0.34; d = 0.55), and not for the other six psychosocial outcomes (d <0.36). Matching similarity was not significantly related to the outcomes assessed. Mentoring was of limited benefit for psychosocial functioning of youth with VI. This trial is registered in the Netherlands Trial Register NTR4768.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)251-265
JournalBritish Journal of Visual Impairment
Volume39
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This study was supported by Grant 94309005 by two organizations: Bartimeus Fonds and ZonMw, the Dutch organization for Health Research and Development, program InSight. The authors wish to thank the two national Dutch rehabilitation centers (Bartimeus and Royal Dutch Visio) for supporting us with the recruitment of participants. In addition, we would like to thank our research assistants for assisting with the data collection. The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This study was supported by Grant 94309005 by two organizations: Bartimeus Fonds and ZonMw, the Dutch organization for Health Research and Development, program InSight.

FundersFunder number
Bartimeus Fonds
Bartimeus and Royal Dutch Visio94309005
Dutch Organization for Health Research and Development
ZonMw
national Dutch rehabilitation centers

    Keywords

    • Adolescents
    • basic psychological needs
    • community-based mentoring
    • psychosocial functioning
    • visual impairment

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Evaluation of a community-based mentoring program on psychosocial functioning of adolescents with a visual impairment: A randomized controlled trial'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this