The test of time: predictors and effects of duration in youth mentoring relationships

The effects and predictors of duration in youth mentor relationships were examined. The study included 1,138 young, urban adolescents (Mean age = 12.25, all of whom applied to Big Brothers Big Sisters programs. The adolescents were randomly assigned to either the treatment or control group, and administered questions at baseline and 18 months later. Adolescents in relationships that lasted a year or longer reported the largest number of improvements, with progressively fewer effects emerging among youth who were in relationships that terminated earlier. Adolescents who were in relationships that terminated within a very short period of time reported decrements in several indicators of functioning. Older adolescents, as well as those who had been referred for services or had sustained emotional, sexual or physical abuse, were most likely to be in early terminating relationships, as were married volunteers aged 26–30 and those with lower incomes. Several dyadic factors were also found to be related to earlier terminations, including race, gender, and relationship quality.     

Commentary on ‘mentoring and the impact of the research climate’

Conclusions First of all, I would like to commend Roberts and colleagues for taking on a difficult but very important topic. It would be valuable if someone could follow up with a broader sample of universities and laboratories — paying careful attention to possible sampling and non-sampling errors. In general, I recommend that mentors explicitly both learn and teach ethical theory and practice within the context of their scientist development programs. Finally, while it is important to emphasize sound and ethical research standards and processes in mentoring programs, this should not be at the expense of an appropriate emphasis on skills essential to professional competitiveness, such as responsible, effective publication, grant winning, and demonstrably strong performance on the grants won. Dr. Gardenier is a survey statistician at the National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The views presented are his personal opinions only.     

Does Natural Mentoring Matter? A Multilevel Meta‐analysis on the Association Between Natural Mentoring and Youth Outcomes

In this meta‐analytic review, we examined the relation between natural mentoring and youth outcomes in four domains: academic and vocational functioning, social‐emotional development, physical health, and psychosocial problems. Natural mentoring relationships are thought to foster positive youth development and buffer against the risks associated with the tumultuous years of adolescence. Two separate meta‐analyses were conducted on the presence of a natural mentor and the quality of the natural mentoring relationship, including thirty studies from 1992 to present. The findings indicated that the presence of a natural mentor was significantly associated with positive youth outcomes (r = .106). A larger effect size was found for the quality of the natural mentoring relationship in terms of relatedness, social support, and autonomy support (r = .208). The largest effect sizes were found for social‐emotional development and academic and vocational functioning. Risk‐status (e.g., teenage mothers, homeless youth, youth in foster care, and youth of alcoholic parents) did not moderate the relation between presence and quality of natural mentoring relationships and youth outcomes, which may indicate that natural mentors are generally beneficial for all youth regardless of risk‐status. Implications for theory and practice concerning the quality of the natural mentoring relationship are discussed.     

Work and psychiatric illness in Aotearoa/New Zealand: implications for career practice

ABSTRACT

This paper aims to examine the influence of Māori culture upon psychiatric service provision in Aotearoa/New Zealand and the implications of this for career counselling of people with experience of mental illness in Aotearoa/New Zealand. The research explored the experiences of a group of women in Aotearoa/New Zealand who have been diagnosed with a psychiatric illness, with the aim of gaining some understanding about how they negotiate issues around diagnosis, recovery and resilience development and employment. The women interviewed for the study ranged in age from 17 to late 60s. They displayed academic ability ranging from literacy issues to postdoctoral experience. Their psychiatric illnesses ranged from single episodes to chronic lifetime conditions and from depression to psychotic bi-polar disorder. Their occupations ranged from unemployed status to an acting CEO. All but one of the women identified as Pākehā/tauiwi. One woman had Māori heritage but had been adopted at birth by Pākehā adoptive parents and had no knowledge of her Māori whakapapa [genealogy; descent lines; ancestry] until later in her adult life. The key idea that emerged was the importance of mentors in vocational settings, and the helpfulness of Māori-focused group and family wellness models for renegotiating vocational identity when suffering from a psychiatric illness. Implications for career practitioners are discussed.     

Examining career-related mentoring and managerial performance across cultures: A multilevel analysis

The benefits of the mentoring relationship for protégés have been a primary focus in the mentoring literature. Researchers have recently begun to examine how mentoring can benefit the mentor. The purpose of the present study is to examine whether direct report-ratings of a manager’s career-related mentoring behaviors are related to boss-ratings of that manager’s performance. In addition, this study assesses whether the cultural background of the manager moderates the career-related mentoring-performance relationship via multilevel methodology. Results reveal that managers who are rated by their direct reports as engaging in career-related mentoring behaviors are perceived as better performers by their bosses. Moreover, the GLOBE societal culture dimension of Performance Orientation was a significant cross-level moderator of the career-related mentoring-performance relationship. Implications for the practice of mentoring in cross-cultural contexts across multiple disciplines are discussed.     

The state of mentoring research: A qualitative review of current research methods and future research implications

Research regarding mentoring relationships has flourished during the past 20 years. This article reviews the methodology and content of 200 published mentoring articles. Some of the major concerns raised in this review include over reliance on cross-sectional designs and self-report data, a failure to differentiate between different forms of mentoring (e.g., formal versus informal), and a lack of experimental research. Implications and suggestions for future research are offered.