Intentions to Initiate Mentoring Relationships: Understanding the Impact of Race, Proactivity, Feelings of Deprivation, and Relationship Roles

Abstract

The authors used a within-subjects experiment to examine the following influences on intentions to initiate informal mentorship: race similarity (RS), proactivity, feelings of race-related fraternal relative deprivation (RD), and roles in the potential mentoring dyads (roles). The authors instructed 126 White participants to assume the roles of upperclassmen or freshmen, provided them with the profiles of 12 potential protégés or mentors, and asked them to indicate their intentions to initiate mentorship. The authors found significant main effects of RS and proactivity, and a significant interaction effect between RS and proactivity. RD moderated the significant main effects. Roles also moderated the significant main effects and the interaction between RS and RD. The findings add to the literature of diversified mentoring and RD.