From Jesus Creed: Traditional Youth Ministry and the Weak Gospel

Supportive non-parental adults help teenagers reach full emotional, academic, relational, and behavioral maturity. This has been proven so extensively that we can assume it’s truth without further proof or explanation. We can easily extrapolate that adolescents would also need supportive non-parental adults to reach full spiritual maturity. Or, that they need non-parental adults to fully communicate the gospel.

Source: Traditional Youth Ministry and the Weak Gospel