Investigation of the Effects of Big Brothers Big Sisters Community-Based Mentoring on Loneliness During Adolescence: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Loneliness is increasingly recognized as a public health concern, with research pointing to adolescence as a time of increased susceptibility to feelings of loneliness. Mentoring programs are theoretically well positioned to help combat loneliness among adolescents, but empirical investigation of this possibility is lacking. The present study addressed this gap using data from a randomized controlled trial of the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America community-based mentoring program, in which 1353 adolescents (mean age of 12.30 years) were followed for a 4-year period. Approximately two thirds of youth in the treatment group (68%) were able to be matched with a program mentor. Analyses investigated the effects of both being assigned to the treatment group (intention-to-treat effect; ITT) and being matched with a program mentor (complier average causal effect; CACE) on youth reports of loneliness at the study endpoint. Both effects were significant in the direction of lower reported loneliness (standardized mean differences [SMDs] of 0.172 and 0.254, respectively). Exploratory analyses, conducted for hypothesis generation, of potential differences in effects as a function of youth gender and age, whether the youth reported a non-familial very important adult at study baseline, and whether the youth reported relatively frequent feelings of loneliness at baseline, generally, did not reveal significant differences. The one exception was youth age, which showed preliminary evidence of moderation, approaching significance (p < 0.10) and reaching significance as a moderator of ITT and CACE estimates, respectively, with relatively stronger estimated effects at older ages. Findings provide initial support for mentoring as a strategy for reducing feelings of loneliness among adolescents.