Developmental mentoring match characteristics: correspondence between mentors' and mentees' assessments of relationship quality

Understanding the factors that contribute to high-quality mentoring relationships is critical to developing and sustaining effective mentoring programs. In study 1, sixty-three adolescent mentors, from two high schools, were surveyed four to six weeks after being matched with elementary-age mentees....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of primary prevention 2005-03, Vol.26 (2), p.93-110
Main Authors: Karcher, Michael J, Nakkula, Michael J, Harris, John
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Diagnostic Teaching
Education
Female
Humans
Interpersonal Relations
Interprofessional Relations
Male
Mentoring programs
Mentors
Parent Participation
Parent School Relationship
Participant Characteristics
Perceptions
Pilot Projects
Predictive Validity
Rural Population
Self Efficacy
Surveys and Questionnaires
Underachievement
Urban Population
Validity
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Summary:Understanding the factors that contribute to high-quality mentoring relationships is critical to developing and sustaining effective mentoring programs. In study 1, sixty-three adolescent mentors, from two high schools, were surveyed four to six weeks after being matched with elementary-age mentees. Hierarchical regression models revealed that mentees' academic and behavioral risk status, parental involvement, and program quality all explained variance in mentor-perceived relationship quality, but none remained significant predictors after mentors' self-efficacy, motivations for self-enhancement, and assessments of their mentees' support seeking behaviors were accounted for. Study 2 cross-validates the regression model in study 1 and examines the concurrent validity and predictive validity of a measure of mentoring match characteristics using mid-year and end-of-year assessments from mentees and mentors. Editors' Strategic Implications: The focus on mentors' initial impressions of their mentees and the relationship represents a novel contribution to the study of relationship formation and persistence. The authors provide a promising strategy - and descriptions of specific measures - to help programs study relationships that endure or terminate. Coordinators will benefit from the knowledge that if mentors feel efficacious and if the mentoring relationship is strong, mentors are more likely to persist.
ISSN:0278-095X
1573-6547
DOI:10.1007/s10935-005-1847-x