The Impact of Adult Male Participation in Formal Mentorship on Male Youth Connectedness as Influenced by Age and Cultural Background of Mentee

Abstract

The study from which this article is drawn employed a quasi - experimental design with a control group in determining the effectiveness of adult male participation in formal mentorship on male youth self-esteem and connectedness. This article addresses the impact of age and cultural background of male youth on the effectiveness of formal mentorship. The study involved 52 male youth and 13 adult male mentors. These participants were selected from Kiserian town in Kajiado North and Kajiado West constituencies of Kajiado County. The 52 mentees were aged between 15 and 23 years from different cultural backgrounds in Kenya who live in Kiserian Township. After mentorship, the male youth connectedness mean subsequently went up from 29.31 (moderate connectedness) to 38.12 (high connectedness). This is a difference of 8.81 points in improved male youth connectedness. The hypothesis stating that male youth connectedness as enhanced through mentorship is significantly refereed by their age (F (2, 23) =.275, p =.762) and cultural background (F(7,18) =1.102, p =.403) was therefore rejected at α =0.05. This is because the connectedness increase was not statistically significant across the male youth ages and cultural background. This article therefore concludes that a mentee’s age and cultural background may not significantly impact on the effectiveness of mentorship on their connectedness. Recommendations are therefore made for adult male mentors to pay attention to coaching male youth on social skills that will enable them to make, keep and utilize healthy value-based relationships for their psychosocial wellbeing.