Gender, Race, and Perceived Similarity Effects in Developmental Relationships: The Moderating Role of Relationship Duration

The authors examine the doctoral student-faculty advisor dyad as a developmental relationship and investigate how gender, race, and perceived similarity are related to doctoral student perceptions of mentoring received. They hypothesized that the relationship of similarity with mentoring received would be moderated by duration of the relationship. Specifically, they expected that gender and race dissimilarity would lead to less mentoring early in the relationship but that such effects would dissipate later in the relationship. Furthermore, the authors predicted that perceived similarity, conceptualized as underlying similarity of attitudes, values, and beliefs, would be more strongly related to outcomes for longer duration versus shorter duration dyads. They found that, in general, duration of the relationship moderated the effects of gender similarity and perceived similarity on mentoring received, although the pattern of means was more complex than originally hypothesized.