While youth, especially those who are immigrants, can benefit from having an individual relationship and a potential connection with an older parental figure, the constraints of limited resources and the intimate nature of the individual mentoring model may hinder the effectiveness of this type of mentoring and the social nature of youth; therefore, the individual mentoring model cannot be effective in meeting their social needs, and consequently group mentoring is used instead of the traditional individual model or alongside it to address these barriers or potential challenges and meet needs. (According to Philip et al. 2004).

It may also be the only option if mentoring programs have insufficient resources for individual matching. (Herrera et al.; Fountain and Arbreton 2002)

Group mentoring requires fewer mentors and a larger number of youths. (Herrera et al. 2002)

Furthermore, if there is a mismatch between the mentor and the mentee in the individual mentoring model, it is easier to overcome this through group mentoring (Herrera et al., 2002; Hartley 2004).

Group mentoring provides mentees (especially if the mentees in the group are from the same cultural background) with empathy, social and emotional support, academic assistance, and a sense of belonging, which in turn helps youths negotiate cultural issues and challenges in their daily lives.

The Centre for Multicultural Youth Issues also points out that group mentoring is beneficial in connecting refugees and immigrant youth with youth outside their cultural group to create an expanded social support network and give them the opportunity to interact with peers they may not typically engage with. (Herrera et al. 2004 Philip et al. 2002)

While group mentoring has many advantages, its main limitation remains that mentees receive less attention compared to what they find in individual mentoring settings, as they compete with more outspoken youths and non-social youths who display behaviors that require additional time and attention from the mentor, which can overshadow the needs of quieter youth.

As a result, mentees may be able to develop the necessary trust relationship to achieve the positive outcomes associated with mentoring, yet some youths in the group may also face negative experiences due to preferential treatment or group fighting or exclusion from the group. (According to Herrera et al. 2002)

Finally, coordinating groups and organizing activities may be difficult due to differences in interests, and the only way to overcome this is to engage youth in the decision-making process. (According to Grossman 1999 and Herrera et al. 2002)

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