The Relationship You Can Prescribe
Dr. Cantor on what she saw at the Big Brothers Big Sisters national conference, and why an assigned relationship can change the direction of a life.
Photo: Big Brothers Big Sisters
Speaking to the mentors and young people at the Big Brothers Big Sisters national conference in Atlanta, Pamela Cantor, M.D. found herself asking a question she had not yet put to her readers: of all the relationships that shape a life, why does this kind work? A Big and a Little are not family, and an organization introduced them. Yet something powerful reliably grows between them. In this Substack essay, Dr. Cantor explains why, and what the answer says about how unevenly the most important input into a developing brain is handed out.
She draws on a random-assignment study of nearly a thousand young people and on the work of Jean Rhodes to show that the quality of the bond and how long it lasts are the active ingredients. That is why the screening, training, and professional support behind every match matter so much. They protect the one variable the science says counts.
"For a child, connection is infrastructure."
— Pamela Cantor, M.D.
