Does Humility of Mentors Matter for Self-Perceived Minority Mentees’ Mental Wellbeing?

Abstract

With the ever-increasing efforts toward pursing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) as fundamental societal values, higher education is making strides to embody the DEI paradigm. Much of the DEI initiatives in higher education, however, remains focused on the quantitative increase of students from historically underrepresented communities, rather than helping those students thrive in college after their arrival. In other words, these initiatives disproportionately seek to increase diversity of student populations rather than seek to ensure that the environment into which these students enter is inclusive. This imbalance in DEI initiatives is problematic given the dismal success rates in college of these underrepresented students, compared to those of students that are well-represented in higher education. To extend our understanding about how to provide a thriving college environment for minority students, and how to close this achievement gap, this study explores the role of peer mentors’ expressed humility in maintaining self-perceived minority mentees’ mental wellbeing over their first-year in college. Building on the conservation of resources theory, we articulate how a mentor’s empathic, humble personality trait mitigates the negative relationship between the perceived minority status of mentees and their mental wellbeing throughout the first-year of college; a year that demands significant adjustment to a new environment for all students. Further, the current study presents work engagement of mentees as a psychological mechanism that explains the hypothesized mitigating role of expressed humility of mentors. We tested our research model using three-waved, multi-rater survey data collected from 124 mentee-mentor dyads in a year-long peer mentoring program at a large university. The results of the study underscore the crucial, buffering role of peer mentors against the psychological challenges that mentees with self-perceived minority status experience in adjusting and succeeding in new organizational environments. The implications for theory and practice are discussed.