Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2018 Oct 24;1(2):e11679.
doi: 10.2196/11679.

Electronic Mentoring Programs and Interventions for Children and Youth With Disabilities: Systematic Review

Sally Lindsay  1   2 , Kendall Kolne  1 , Elaine Cagliostro  1
Affiliations
Review

Electronic Mentoring Programs and Interventions for Children and Youth With Disabilities: Systematic Review

Sally Lindsay et al. JMIR Pediatr Parent. .

Abstract

Background: Children and youth with disabilities experience many challenges in their development, including higher risk of poor self-esteem, fewer friendships, and social isolation. Electronic mentoring is a potentially viable approach for youth with disabilities to access social and peer support within a format that reduces physical barriers to accessing mentors.

Objective: Our objective was to synthesize and review the literature on the impact of electronic mentoring for children and youth with disabilities.

Methods: We conducted a systematic review, completing comprehensive searches of 7 databases from 1993 to May 2018. We selected articles for inclusion that were peer-reviewed publications, had a sample of children or youth with disabilities (≤25 years of age), and had empirical findings with at least one outcome focusing on the impact of electronic mentoring. Two reviewers independently applied the inclusion criteria, extracted the data, and rated the study quality before discussing the findings.

Results: In the 25 studies meeting our inclusion criteria, 897 participants (aged 12-26, mean 17.4 years) were represented across 6 countries. Although the outcomes varied across the studies, of 11 studies testing significance, 9 (81%) reported a significant improvement in at least one of the following: career decision making, self-determination, self-advocacy, self-confidence, self-management, social skills, attitude toward disability, and coping with daily life. The electronic mentoring interventions varied in their delivery format and involved 1 or more of the following: interactive websites, virtual environment, email, mobile apps, Skype video calls, and phone calls. A total of 13 studies involved one-to-one mentoring, 6 had group-based mentoring, and 6 had a combination of both.

Conclusions: The evidence in this review suggests it is possible that electronic mentoring is effective for children and youth with disabilities. More rigorously designed studies are needed to understand the impact and effective components of electronic mentoring interventions.

Keywords: adolescent; child; disability; disabled children; disabled persons; eHealth; mentoring; peer support; review; telemedicine; youth.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Search process flow diagram. ERIC: Education Resources Information Center; Soc.abstr: Sociological Abstracts.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Statistics Canada . Disability in Canada: A 2006 Profile. Ottawa, ON: Statistics Canada; 2006. [2018-09-07]. http://publications.gc.ca/site/archivee-archived.html?url=http://publica... .
    1. Yang L, Hock T. Disability statistics. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University; 2016. [2018-07-24]. http://www.yti.cornell.edu/projects/disability-statistics .
    1. McDonald KE, Balcazar FE, Keys CB. Youth with disabilities. In: DuBois DL, Karcher MJ., editors. Handbook of Youth Mentoring. New York, NY: Sage; 2005.
    1. Lindsay S, McDougall C, Menna-Dack D, Sanford R, Adams T. An ecological approach to understanding barriers to employment for youth with disabilities compared to their typically developing peers: views of youth, employers, and job counselors. Disabil Rehabil. 2015;37(8):701–11. doi: 10.3109/09638288.2014.939775. doi: 10.3109/09638288.2014.939775. - DOI - DOI - PubMed
    1. United Nations Children's Fund . State of the world's children 2013: children with disabilities. New York, NY: UNICEF; 2013. [2018-07-24]. https://www.unicef.org/sowc2013/files/SWCR2013_ENG_Lo_res_24_Apr_2013.pdf .

LinkOut - more resources