Integrating Mentoring and Social Support Research within the Context of Stressful Medical Training

Abstract

To promote the integration of mentoring and social support research, we investigated their links to mental health and self-efficacy within the context of stressful medical training. In two studies, medical trainees (recipients) rated the mentoring quality and perceived supportiveness of clinical instructors. Study 1 revealed that support and psychosocial mentoring had very similar patterns of correlations with other constructs. Yet, support had distinct links to positive affect and self esteem whereas psychosocial mentoring had distinct links to self-efficacy. In contrast, support and career mentoring had different patterns of correlations with other constructs. Study 2 revealed that both support and mentoring strongly reflected the unique relationships among specific recipients and mentors, rather than the objective properties of mentors. We conclude that perceived support and psychosocial mentoring are highly similar constructs empirically, although each construct has some unique empirical qualities. Perceived support and career mentoring are much less similar.