**5. Discussion**

This research aimed to identify whether the presence of a mentor that provides support can improve some specific aspects of the social and emotional well-being of young immigrants. The results of this study show that the development of a mentoring relationship improved some aspects of the psychosocial well-being of young immigrants and refugees, protecting them from the negative impact of the stress involved in adapting to a new country. This finding is consistent with earlier research that shows that the presence of a non-parental adult acts as a support that helps mentees increase their ability to overcome adverse events, such as those arising from leaving and adapting to a new context [26].

The support of a reliable ally provided participants with a number of personal and social benefits insofar as it helped them weave local support networks. Some of these benefits involve an improvement in their emotional and cognitive skills, as well as better social development. The mentees that participated in the project, as has been observed in other participants of formal mentoring programmes aimed at the inclusion of young people of foreign origin [25,59], improved their access to social capital resources, whose social networks constitute the framework in which support exchanges take place. The perceived availability of social support reduced some symptoms of stress associated with the migration process and made the youths more resilient, despite enduring significant adversity. The impact of mentoring on the promotion of resilience in adolescents from ethnic minorities supports the findings of a recent literature review [36,60–62].

Participation in the Nightingale project improved the minors' relationships with their classmates. This corroborates the results of previous research that shows a positive association between mentoring and peer relationship development [63]. The importance of close peer relationships for immigrant adolescents has been found in previous social science research [64,65], the results of which show that peer social support not only promotes adaptation to the host country but also contributes to greater psychological well-being. In the present study, the increase in the perception of social support in school, as well as providing mentees with educational support, strengthened their feeling of personal worth.

The Nightingale project generated significant positive changes in the minors, which helped them in their process of adaptation to the school. During the intervention, the participants improved social relationships with their classmates and also showed more assertive attitudes towards the school and teachers. These results coincide with those found by various authors [13,66], which show the e ffectiveness of mentoring programmes to promote a positive change in a student's attitude towards the school. This inner transformation is vital to help adolescent immigrants and refugees to improve their academic performance. Over the course of the programme, the students' psychological involvement in learning—cognitive commitment—increased significantly. This di fference in the pre-test–post-test intervention, as other authors have suggested [3,24], might be due to the positive role model provided by the mentors. The Nightingale project volunteers are young undergraduates who, because of their status as students, can foster the minors' motivation during their transition to post-compulsory education.

In contrast to other research on informal or 'natural' mentoring relationships [46,67], no evidence was found showing the programme's impact on the reduction in perceived racial discrimination. It is possible that in order for mentors to moderate the attitude of suspicion and feeling of mistrust towards others, the mentor needs to focus on responding to this specific goal—for example, through specific conversations on discriminatory experiences. This was not assessed in the study.
