Executive Summary.

1. Relationships across multiple settings: An overview (Gil G. Noam, Nina Fiore)
It is not the method of interaction but the quality of the interaction between patient and therapist, student and teacher, mentee and mentor, or youth and youth worker that is the most critical determinant of success in a myriad of fields.

2. Parent-child connections: The essential component for positive youth development and mental health, safe communities, and academic achievement (William S. Pollack)
A continuing parent-youth bond throughout adolescence and young adulthood is the foundation for genuine emotional health, academic achievement, and healthy developmental trajectories and the antidote to youth violence.

3. Studying relationships in psychotherapy: An untapped resource for youth mentoring (Renée Spencer)
Although the relationships that youth form with mentors are certainly of a different nature from a psychotherapy relationship, there are some parallels and perhaps even core elements shared by these connections.

4. The role of teacher relationships in the lives of students (Katia Fredriksen, Jean Rhodes)
This chapter examines positive teacher-student relationships, as seen through a variety of psychological models and provides recommendations for schools and teachers.

5. Learning relationships: Teacher-student connections, learning, and identity in high school (Beth Bernstein-Yamashiro)
Personal mentoring connections between teachers and students in high school constitute learning opportunities of their own, unique components of the developmental process, and a potential for community-building in schools.

6. Emotional intelligence and staff training in after-school environments (Michelle Seligson, Marybeth MacPhee)
The goal of applying relational psychology and emotional intelligence to professional development for youth practitioners is to foster relationships in which both participants grow.

Index.