Toward Validating a Mentorability Scale For First-Year Mentees in Developmental Relationships

Abstract

This study validates a novel mentorability scale, or, a survey measuring first-year college students’ ability to be mentorable. The scale was developed after two pilot studies across three years and was administered in Fall 2019 to 84 first-year students at a large, Hispanic-serving institution in the U.S. South. The scale includes items on how mentees perceive their own ability to be open to feedback, commit time to their mentor, use their mentor’s advice, attend meetings and co-curricular events with their mentor, discussion social lives and academics with their mentor, listen to their mentor, and be respectful of their mentor. Initial results suggest that students who rated themselves highly as being willing to take advice from their mentor correlated with semester-to-semester and year-to-year retention. Implications for first-year student retention and postsecondary mentoring programs will be addressed.