Assessing, observing and discussing connectedness to reveal possibilities
Michael J. Karcher, Ed.D., Ph.D., University of Texas at San Antonio
Talk Overview:
It seems to me that over the past 30 years in the field of human development, adolescent development in particular, as well as in the service of school-based interventions the value of the construct of school connectedness has become overly muddled and something needs to change. In this talk I will explain what I mean by illustrating the evolution and diversity of terms, definitions, measures and interventions addressing school connectedness. I will specifically illustrate the evolution of two measures of school connectedness and what each offers us uniquely. I will illustrate this using an applied example called the connectedness profile. This is a simple excel based tool that generates A comparative profile of students’ responses to the Hemingway: Measure of Adolescent Connectedness* (see www.adolescentconnectedness.com). I will show how it's used and discuss the benefits of its use in the context of youth mentoring programs. Attendees will be encouraged to consider other ways it might be used such as by teachers or parents or camp counselors. Attendees will leave with a more differentiated understanding of the various ways in which connectedness has been measured and what that means for our interpretation of research and the use of the construct in the service of fostering youth development.
(* Note: in the footnotes of Karcher & Sass [2010] it states, “We ascribe the name Hemingway to Don Carli, a Michigan teacher and natural mentor, who altered one student’s career path when he said, “You write like Hemingway.” More on this will be shared in the presentation.)
References:
Karcher, M. J. & Zaff, J. (2025). Connecting in a disconnected world: Tools for health professionals to assess and expand patients’ connectedness and webs of support. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1177/15598276251339462
Karcher, M. J., & Sass, D. (2010). A multicultural assessment of adolescent connectedness: Testing measurement invariance across gender and ethnicity. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 57(3), 274-289. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019357
Karcher, M. J., Davis, C., & Powell, B. (2002). The effects of developmental mentoring on connectedness and academic achievement. The School Community Journal, 12, 36-50.* https://www.adi.org/journal/fw02/Karcher%20et%20al..pdf
Karcher, M. J. (2001, August). The Hemingway Measure of Adolescent Connectedness: Three validation studies. Poster presented at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association, San Francisco, CA (ERIC no. ED477969; ERIC/CASS no. CG032433). https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED477969.pdf
Bio
Dr. Karcher is a Professor of Educational Psychology in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He received a doctorate in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University and a doctorate in Counseling Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin. His research focuses on school-based and cross-age peer mentoring as well as on adolescent connectedness and pair counseling. Michael authored the Cross-age Mentoring Program (CAMP) program, the implementation for which is described in CAMP Program Manual, Training Guide, Connectedness Curriculum, and Mentor Handbook, which have been reviewed by and are listed on the website of CrimeSolutions.gov (https://crimesolutions.ojp.gov/ratedprograms/cross-age-peer-mentoring-program)and the NMRC . Michael was most recently the Principal Investigator of a longitudinal follow-up on the Study of Mentoring in the Learning Environment (SMILE) study funded by the W.T. Grant Foundation and OJJDP. Along with David L. DuBois, Professor Karcher edited the Handbook of Youth Mentoring (2005, Sage; second edition in 2014). Michael co-edited with Michael Nakkula, Play, talk, learn: Promising practices in youth mentoring (2010), which first presented the TEAM framework. He has served on the editorial board for journals and the research and advisory boards of BBBSA, MENTOR, and the Christian Association for Youth Mentoring.