Does mentoring matter? A multidisciplinary meta-analysis comparing mentored and non-mentored individuals

The study of mentoring has generally been conducted within disciplinary silos with a specific type of mentoring relationship as a focus. The purpose of this article is to quantitatively review the three major areas of mentoring research (youth, academic, workplace) to determine the overall effect size associated with mentoring outcomes for protégés. We also explored whether the relationship between mentoring and protégé outcomes varied by the type of mentoring relationship (youth, academic, workplace). Results demonstrate that mentoring is associated with a wide range of favorable behavioral, attitudinal, health-related, relational, motivational, and career outcomes, although the effect size is generally small. Some differences were also found across type of mentoring. Generally, larger effect sizes were detected for academic and workplace mentoring compared to youth mentoring. Implications for future research, theory, and applied practice are provided.     

Factors Related to Mentor Reports of Mentoring Functions Provided: Gender and Relational Characteristics

In this study we examined the relationship between mentor gender, protégé gender, mentorship characteristics (e.g., mentorship type, mentorship duration, mentor experience), and mentoring functions provided as reported by mentors. Drawing on research regarding diversified mentorships and interpersonal relationships, we proposed that mentoring effectiveness would vary as a function of the gender of the mentorship participants and the characteristics of the relationship. As hypothesized, several interesting gender differences emerged from the data. Male mentors reported providing more career mentoring to their protégés, whereas female mentors reported providing more psychosocial mentoring. Contrary to expectations, mentors in informal mentorships did not report providing more mentoring than did mentors in formal mentorships. The findings demonstrate the importance of examining mentoring from the perspective of the mentor.     

Opportunities in public policy to support infant and early childhood mental health: the role of psychologists and policymakers

Infant and early childhood mental health practices can be supported by policies and professional standards of care that foster the healthy development of young children. Policies that support infants and toddlers include those that strengthen their families to provide a family environment that promotes mental wellness. Policy issues for infants, toddlers, and young children have come to the forefront of thinking as children need a "voice" to advocate for their support and care. This article (a) highlights several important policy areas that support the social-emotional development of very young children and (b) gives examples of current policy accomplishments and challenges. The article offers a policy agenda to promote the mental health of infants and young children and suggests ways that psychologists can engage with policymakers to promote policies that foster infant mental health, including contributing to the knowledge base that informs policy decisions, educating the public and policymakers about early childhood development and mental wellness, forming community partnerships to identify and address infant mental health risks, and participating in the development of policy recommendations that improve access to evidence-based practices in infant mental health.     

Executive function, intellectual decline and daily living skills

Understanding the cognitive changes associated with compromised daily living skills in elderly individuals is important for making appropriate recommendations about the capacity for independent functioning. To this end, we retrospectively examined data from 92 elderly individuals presenting with cognitive decline who were administered measures of executive functioning, general intelligence, and daily living skills. Multiple regression analyses were used to examine the relationship between executive functioning and daily living skills, while controlling for age, depression, and either IQ decline or current IQ. Executive functioning accounted for additional variance in a broad range of daily living skills after controlling for IQ decline. When FSIQ was used in the regression model rather than IQ decline, executive functioning was no longer uniquely associated with daily living skills. Executive functions appear to be important for daily living skills until a critical threshold of low intellectual functioning is reached, reflecting the combined influence of premorbid ability and the extent of intellectual decline. Our results suggest that understanding the relative contribution of different cognitive domains to functional decline in elderly individuals should take into account general intellectual functioning and estimated decline, and that the initiation and/or persistence of self-directed cognitive processes may be important for adaptive daily functioning. These findings have implications for making more evidence-based recommendations about the capacity for independent living.     

Effects of daily morphine administration and deprivation on choice and demand for remifentanil and cocaine in rhesus monkeys

Choice procedures have indicated that the relative reinforcing effectiveness of opioid drugs increases during opioid withdrawal. The demand curve, an absolute measure of reinforcer value, has not been applied to this question. The present study assessed whether mild morphine withdrawal would increase demand for or choice of remifentanil or cocaine. Four rhesus monkeys chose between remifentanil and cocaine during daily sessions. Demand curves for both drugs were subsequently obtained. The effects of daily injections of 3.2 mg/kg morphine on both choice and demand for these drugs was assayed 3 and 20.5 hr after each morphine injection, and then during a postmorphine period. Three hours following morphine injections, choice of remifentanil over cocaine decreased and demand for remifentanil--but not cocaine--became more elastic. During morphine withdrawal (20.5 hr postinjection), choice of remifentanil increased and remifentanil demand became more inelastic in 3 of 4 monkeys. Cocaine demand also became more inelastic during this period. Four to five weeks following the morphine regimen, demand for both drugs was more inelastic relative to the initial determination. The results suggest that both the relative and absolute reinforcing effectiveness of remifentanil decreased following morphine administration and increased during morphine withdrawal. The absolute reinforcing effectiveness of cocaine also increased during morphine withdrawal. In addition, extended exposure to drug self-administration and/or exposure to the morphine regimen produced long-term increases in demand for both drugs.     

Rewarding Good Citizens: The Relationship Between Citizenship Behavior,Gender, and Organizational Rewards1

The relationship between organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and two organizational rewards—salary and promotion—was examined. Employee gender also was tested as a moderator. Data from 440 individuals employed in multiple settings indicated that individuals who reported engaging more frequently in OCB directed toward the organization (OCBO) also reported receiving more promotions. Further, results indicated that gender was a moderator such that the relationship between OCBO and promotion was stronger for males than for females. The results also revealed an interaction between OCB directed toward individuals (OCBI) and OCBO. Specifically, high OCBI and low OCBO related to lower promotion rates than did low OCBI and low OCBO. Results are discussed in terms of implications for individual career development.     

Work-Life Boundaries and Well-Being: Does Work-to-Life Integration Impair Well-Being through Lack of Recovery?

Against the backdrop of increasingly blurred boundaries between work and nonwork, the purpose of this study was to investigate the implications of employees’ work-to-life boundary enactment for well-being. Using border/boundary theory (as reported by Ashforth, Kreiner, & Fugate (Academy of Management Review 25(3):472–491, 2000) and Clark (Human Relations 54(6):747–770, 2000)) and the effort-recovery model (as reported by Meijman & Mulder (Handbook of work and organizational psychology vol. 2 55–53, 1998)), we developed a research model that links work-to-life integration enactment to exhaustion and impaired work-life balance via lack of recovery activities (as reported by Sonnentag, Journal of Applied Psychology 88(3):518–528, 2003). The model was tested using structural equation modeling. Our sample consisted of N = 1916 employees who were recruited via an online panel service. Results showed that employees who scored high on work-to-life integration enactment reported less recovery activities and in turn were more exhausted and experienced less work-life balance. Our study contributes to the existing literature on boundary management by investigating the well-being implications of work-to-life boundary enactment and by suggesting and testing recovery as an underlying mechanism. In doing so, we link boundary enactment with existing theory of the work-life interface. Based on our review of existent research on boundary management and well-being, we disentangle previous contradictory findings. Understanding of the well-being implications of boundary enactment and underlying mechanisms can help human resource professionals and practitioners to devise and implement organizational policies and interventions that enable employees to develop boundary management strategies that are sustainable in that they do not impair employees’ well-being.     

The Inclusion of Spiritual Process in Counseling and Perceived Counselor Effectiveness

In this study, client level of spirituality was examined as a potential moderater for the effectiveness of including spiritual process in the counseling process. Using an analogue design, participants were crossed on self‐reported level of spirituality and randomly assigned to 1 of 2 analogue conditions. Results suggested that a spiritual intervention was perceived similarly to a cognitive‐behavioral intervention for all respondents. Those respondents who self‐reported higher levels of spirituality rated the counselor on the analogue as more expert and more trustworthy, regardless of which of the 2 analogue conditions they evaluated. Implications for counselors are provided.     

Six-week postpartum maternal self-criticism and dependency and 4-month mother-infant self- and interactive contingencies

Associations of 6-week postpartum maternal self-criticism and dependency with 4-month mother-infant self- and interactive contingencies during face-to-face play were investigated in 126 dyads. Infant and mother face, gaze, touch, and vocal quality were coded second by second from split-screen videotape. Self- and interactive contingencies were defined as auto- and lagged cross-correlation, respectively, using multilevel time-series models. Statistical significance was defined as p<.05. Regarding self-contingency, (a) more self-critical mothers showed primarily lowered self-contingency, whereas their infants showed both lowered and heightened, and (b) infants of more dependent mothers showed primarily lowered self-contingency, whereas findings were absent in mothers. Regarding interactive contingency, (a) more self-critical mothers showed lowered attention and emotion contingencies but heightened contingent touch coordination with infant touch, and (b) more dependent mothers and their infants showed heightened facial/vocal interactive contingencies. Thus, maternal self-criticism and dependency have different effects on mother-infant communication.