Informal Mentoring Relationships Research Articles

Parents’ attitudes toward and experiences with seeking informal mentors for their children

Supportive relationships with non-parental adult role models (akainformal mentors) are important contributors to positive development for children. Absent from research on informal mentoring relationships are studies examining parents’ role in the formation and maintenance of these relationships. In this study, we examined parents’ attitudes about and experiences with their children’s involvement in informal mentoring relationships in two phases. Participating in phase 1 were 161 parents of children enrolled in a formal mentoring program in Canada (ages 27–69, M = 40.25 years; 93.2 % female; 6.8 % male). Participating in phase 2 was a convenience sample of 425 parents in a midwestern state in the United States (ages 23–70, M = 44.95 years; 65.9 % female; 34.1 % male). Parents completed a one-time 20-minute online survey. Parents generally held positive attitudes towards informal mentors but also reported limited involvement in − and several barriers to − fostering children’s informal mentoring relationships. Barriers ranged from not wanting to be a burden on others to believing children would rather spend time with friends. Most parents reported their child had had at least one informal mentor at some point. In both phases, frequency of their child having a mentor was related to their parents having positive attitudes toward informal mentoring and to having directly asked a nonparental adult to be an informal mentor. In phase 2, parents who reported a greater sense of community and supportive social network and higher self-efficacy for facilitating mentoring relationships were more likely to have children with informal mentoring relationships. The findings have implications for including parents in efforts to increase children’s access to supportive mentoring relationships.

Exploring the dark side of informal mentoring: Experiences of nurses and midwives working in hospital settings in Uganda.

Mentoring literature explores the dark side of mentoring as factors such as gender and race and how they affect the overall mentoring experience. The sociocultural context of the nursing and midwifery professions presents unique characteristics warranting a qualitative exploration of negative mentoring experiences. We aimed to characterise the dark side of mentoring based on informal mentoring relationships occurring among nurses and midwives working in hospitals. Utilising semistructured interviews in a qualitative descriptive design and reflexive thematic analysis, we examined the perceptions of 35 nurses and midwives from three public hospitals located in the Western, Northern and North-western regions of Uganda. Findings emerged in four overarching themes mentoring process deficits, mentoring relational problems, organisational challenges in mentoring and implications of negative mentoring experiences. Our study findings underscore that, while mentoring is frequently beneficial, it can also be interspersed with negative experiences arising from relational dynamics, particular mentoring processes and the overarching hospital environment. Notably, nurses and midwives actively transformed these challenges into opportunities for growth and self-improvement, while introspectively examining their roles in contributing to these negative experiences. Such a proactive approach highlights their resilience and steadfast commitment to professional development, even in the face of adversity.

Insights From Informal Research Mentoring of Three University EFL Teachers

Abstract Research-practice nexus has been an ideal for higher education. However, research mentoring has been underexplored in both formal and informal formats. This study aimed to examine the effects of one-year-long informal research mentoring conducted by an experienced EFL teacher educator for three teaching-focused EFL teachers from three different universities. It found that the informal research mentoring generated three positive effects. It fueled the mentees’ research interest, raised their awareness of self-discipline and stress-coping strategies, and kindled their enthusiasm for constructing a collegial environment in their working contexts. Meanwhile, limitations also emerged associated with the mentees’ limited research engagement and productivity owing to personal and contextual factors as well as the problems with the informal mentoring relationships. Implications of the study are drawn to improve faculty research mentoring processes and outcomes.

How informal mentoring by teachers, counselors, and coaches supports students' long-run academic success

We document a largely unrecognized pathway through which schools promote human capital development – by fostering informal mentoring relationships between students and their teachers, counselors, and coaches. Using longitudinal data from a nationally representative sample of adolescents, we explore the nature and consequences of natural mentoring relationships by leveraging within-student variation in the timing of mentorship formation as well as differences in exposure among pairs of twins, best friends, and romantic partners. Results across difference-in-differences and pair fixed-effect specifications show consistent and meaningful positive effects on student attainment, with a conservative estimate of a 9.4 percentage point increase in college attendance. Effects are largest for students of lower socioeconomic status and robust to controls for individual characteristics and bounding exercises for selection on unobservables. Smaller class sizes and a school culture where students have a strong sense of belonging are important school-level predictors of having a K-12 natural mentor.

Practical guidelines for development of a university-wide faculty mentorship program using a multimodal mentoring network model

Formal faculty mentorship programs are a practical and effective pathway to enable faculty success in teaching, scholarship, and service and to enhance faculty satisfaction. Although informal mentoring relationships benefit some faculty, formal faculty mentorship programs ensure equitable access to mentorship for female faculty and faculty from diverse, under-represented backgrounds. Formal faculty mentorship programs can utilize a variety of structures, each with their benefits and drawbacks. This article recommends a multimodal mentoring network model to harness the benefits of traditional dyadic mentoring, multiple-mentor mentorship, peer and near-peer mentorship, and topic- and affinity-based group mentorship and to confer the flexibility, adaptability, and support needed to best cater to the career and psychosocial needs of a diverse faculty. In addition to identifying a suitable program structure, creating a successful university-wide faculty mentorship program requires consultation with faculty of all levels, collaboration with multiple campus departments and stakeholders, and highly visible support from senior administrators. Successful implementation and maintenance of a multimodal university-wide faculty mentorship program also requires appropriate resources and incentives to build and sustain a culture of faculty participation. This article provides practical, evidence-based recommendations for the successful design and implementation of a multimodal university-wide faculty mentorship program.

Mentoring, Part 1

Mentoring, Part 1

Expanding Goal Aspiration for Low-Income, First-Generation, Latino Males Through Faculty, Staff, and Student Relationships

ABSTRACT Mentoring relationships between faculty, staff, and Latino college students play a pivotal role in their student success and sense of belonging. This personal reflection highlights how cross divisional collaborations in student affairs and academic affairs led to the creation of formal and informal mentoring relationships for Latino male students involved in a program for first-generation, low-income college students. The voices of three Latino students will be utilized to emphasize how strategic collaborations led to their enhanced sense of belonging and success at their institution.

The Importance of Peer Mentoring, Identity Work and Holding Environments: A Study of African American Leadership Development.

Mentoring is well-known for its positive impact on diversity and inclusion across a wide variety of organizational contexts. Despite these demonstrated advantages, efforts to develop diverse leaders either through access to informal mentoring relationships or via formal mentoring programs are often complex, expensive, and frequently produce mixed results. We examine the unique impact of peer mentoring to support and develop African American leaders using a formalized program approach. Our findings show that peer mentoring is effective in providing a safe environment for the necessary work of identity to take place among African American leaders. This identity work takes the form of holding behaviors such as enabling perspectives, empathic acknowledgement and containment that are critical for the development, support and validation of diverse leaders. Our findings clearly show the benefit of external identity peer mentors for providing support and validation for African American leaders that can be absent within traditional hierarchical mentoring. By examining the outcomes of an actual leadership development program over time, we provide recommendations on how to enhance diverse leadership development by recognizing and cultivating the positive impact of identity-based peer mentoring.

Youth Initiated Mentoring: A Meta-analytic Study of a Hybrid Approach to Youth Mentoring.

Youth initiated mentoring is a hybrid approach that empowers youth to identify and recruit natural mentors, potentially combining the strengths of informal mentoring relationships with the infrastructure and support provided by formal mentoring programs. This meta-analytic review examined the association between youth-initiated programs and youth outcomes across four domains: academic and vocational functioning, social-emotional development, physical health, and psychosocial problems. Results indicated that youth-initiated programs are significantly associated with positive youth outcomes. There was a small-to-medium effect size of g = 0.30 for youth-initiated programs overall, which was based on 14 studies with 11 independent samples (3594 youth and 169 effect sizes) from 2006 to 2019. The effect size was somewhat larger (g = 0.40) when controlling for possible selection bias, and was moderated by participant gender and year of publication. Implications for theory and practice regarding this relatively new approach to mentoring are discussed.

Decoding the Mentoring Experience for Registered Dietitian Nutritionists

Identify the preferences among Registered Dietitian Nutritionists for various types of formal and informal mentoring relationships along the continuum of career development.

Self- vs. other-focused mentoring motives in informal mentoring: conceptualizing the impact of motives on mentoring behaviours and beneficial mentoring outcomes

ABSTRACT Mentors enter informal mentoring relationships with various motives, but, to date, it is unclear how these motives shape mentor behaviours and mentoring outcomes. We propose a conceptual model to depict the relationships between mentor motives in informal mentoring and the individual, relational, and organizational outcomes of mentoring, with mentor behaviours as a mediating mechanism. We suggest that self-focused motives lead to self-focused behaviours, indicated by higher sensitivity to instrumental rewards, selectivity in relationship initiation, and calculatedness in relationship investment, which lead to mentoring outcomes primarily benefiting the mentor. Other-focused motives, in contrast, lead to other-focused behaviours, characterized by lower sensitivity to instrumental rewards, higher inclusivity in relationship initiation, and lower calculatedness in relationship investment, which result in a broader range of outcomes beneficial to both individuals and the organization. We further explore the impact of societal culture on mentor motives and behaviours. Our research suggests that human resource development professionals should be mindful of the mentor motive – behaviour linkages to optimize mentors’ engagement in informal mentoring relationships.

“My village fell apart”: Parents' Views on Seeking Informal Mentoring Relationships for Their Children

ObjectiveTo assess parents' perceptions of barriers and facilitators to promoting informal mentoring relationships for their children with caring adults in their existing social network.BackgroundSupportive relationships with nonparental adults are critical to positive youth development, social capital, healthy living, and upward mobility, but not all children experience such relationships. Because parents are the primary gatekeepers to children's social networks, we presumed that parents could play a role in shaping children's informal mentoring relationships.MethodWe conducted eight focus groups and used a semistructured interview to ask participants about mentoring and potential barriers or facilitators to connecting children with informal mentors. Participants were 55 parents/caregivers (Mage = 41.43 years; 96.4% female; 77.9% unmarried).ResultsParents were open to the involvement of nonparental adults in children's lives, but they differed in the extent to which their social network offered viable mentor candidates. Other barriers included feeling too proud to ask for help and concerns that informal mentors would be unsafe or inconsistent. Facilitative factors included appreciating the benefits of informal mentoring relationships, feeling connected to one's community, and being able and willing to ask for help in the face of doubt or fear.ConclusionParents were generally positive about children receiving support from informal mentors and acknowledged the potential role they could play in forming those connections; they also recognized potential barriers to making those connections.ImplicationsParents' perception about their “village” suggests the need to develop and evaluate programs that help parents connect children with supportive informal mentors.

Exploring Experiences of Organizational Socialization Among Physical Therapy and Athletic Training Junior Faculty Members

Introduction. Organizational socialization is a process by which institutions assist new faculty members' transition to their expected roles. These may include orientation sessions, mentoring pairings, and ongoing faculty development opportunities. There is a paucity of research identifying the experiences and perceptions of organizational socialization for physical therapy and athletic training junior faculty members. The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of the organizational socialization process for these two groups. Subjects. Junior faculty members in the fields of physical therapy (13) and athletic training (13) participated in this phenomenological qualitative study. Methods. Data were collected in a single phone interview, which was digitally recorded and transcribed verbatim. Transcripts were analyzed following the steps of Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis. Expert review, multiple analyst triangulation, and member checking served to ensure trustworthiness of the findings. Results. Organizational socialization of junior faculty in athletic training and physical therapy revolves around the components of orientation activities and collegial workplace environments. Orientation activities are part of the onboarding process and usually include a formal session to learn about roles and responsibilities. Orientation can positively impact a faculty member's understanding of their role and integration to the culture of their institution. Collegial work environments are those where experienced faculty play an active role in supporting junior members. Because they provide junior faculty some freedom and flexibility in choice of mentor, informal mentoring relationships seem to be integral to this collegial environment. Conclusion. Though these areas may form an important foundation for organizational socialization, additional solutions are needed to optimize the processes by which new faculty are trained. Administrators and institutions should strive to create innovative orientation and onboarding programs that aid newly hired educator's integration.

Caregiver-Initiated Mentoring: Developing a Working Model to Mitigate Social Isolation

Contemporary society is characterized by social isolation, polarization, and increased mobility. For many families, naturally-occurring support systems are changing and possibly fading. When parents face child-rearing without adequate support networks, they experience high parenting stress, diminished health, and greater risk of maltreating their children. Children in socially-isolated families are prone to a range of social, emotional, and academic difficulties. Formal mentoring programs can help by connecting children with supportive nonparental adults, but the demand for mentoring outpaces program capacity, and formal mentoring programs are seldom designed to partner with parents. Additional, resourceful approaches are needed. In this study, we explored the potential for developing an approach that fosters parents’ capacity to be gatekeepers to their children’s adult support networks. We used a daylong collaborative workshop to partner with six parents from a low-income housing service and five youth-serving professionals from the community. Participants generated potential strategies by which parents can cultivate informal mentoring relationships and identified specific ideas for helping parents (a) see the value of actively seeking informal mentors, (b) recognize and manage potential risks, and (c) identify and make requests of potential informal mentors. Findings from our workshop were used to develop a Caregiver-Initiated Mentoring approach that could be utilized by clinical social workers and other helping professionals. The approach integrates our findings with empirical research from youth mentoring and conceptual underpinnings from parent help-seeking models, the Transtheoretical Model of Change, and Motivational Interviewing.

High enthusiasm about long lasting mentoring relationships and older mentors

BackgroundMentoring plays a pivotal role in workplace-based learning, especially in the medical realm. Organising a formal mentoring programme can be labor and time intensive and generally impractical in resource constrained medical schools with limited numbers of mentors. Hence, informal mentoring offers a valuable alternative, but will be more likely to be effective when mentors and protégés share similar views. It is therefore important to gain more insight into factors influencing perceptions of informal mentoring. This study aims to explore mentors and protégés’ perceptions of informal mentoring and how these vary (or not) with gender, age and the duration of the relationship.MethodWe administered an Informal Mentor Role Instrument (IMRI) to medical practitioners and academics from Egypt, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. The questionnaire was developed for the study from other validated instruments. It contained 39 items grouped into 7 domains: acceptance, counselling, friendship, parenting, psychological support, role modelling and sociability.ResultsA total of 103 mentors and 91 protégés completed the IMRI. Mentors had a better appreciation for the interpersonal aspects of informal mentoring than protégés, especially regarding acceptance, counselling and friendship. Moreover, being older and engaged in a longer mentoring relationship contributed to more positive perceptions of interpersonal aspects of mentoring, regardless of one’s role (mentor or protégé).ConclusionIt can be concluded that the expectations of mentors and protégés differed regarding the content and aim of the interpersonal characteristics of their mentoring relationship. We recommend mentors and protégés to more explicitly exchange their expectations of the informal mentoring relationship, as typically practiced in formal mentoring. Additionally, in our study, seniority and lasting relationships seem crucial for good informal mentoring. It appears beneficial to foster lasting informal mentoring relationships and to give more guidance to younger mentors.

The role of felt obligation to mentor in mentor performance

PurposeThe authors introduce a new measure of felt obligation to mentor in order to explore generalized reciprocity in mentoring. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether felt obligation to mentor adds prediction to mentor job performance in combination with mentoring functions provided and mentor-assessed benefits and costs of mentoring.Design/methodology/approachHypotheses were tested in a sample of firefighters in the Southwestern USA using moderated regression analysis.FindingsProtégé reported mentoring functions provided predicted mentor performance, but neither mentoring benefits nor costs predicted mentor performance. Felt obligation to mentor interacted with mentoring functions reported such that mentor performance was highest when both mentoring functions provided and felt obligation to mentor were high.Research limitations/implicationsThe results indicate that the new measure may prove to be of value for exploring generalized reciprocity in mentoring. Further, more research using mentoring benefits and costs is merited. Findings are limited by use of a new measure of felt obligation to mentor as well as the fact that the research was conducted in a setting in which employees were expected to serve as mentors.Practical implicationsOrganizations may leverage felt obligation to mentor in order to support effective informal or formal mentoring relationships, whereas focusing on the benefits of mentoring may be a less valuable strategy.Originality/valueThe research offers a new measure to help to understand generalized reciprocity as a motivation to mentor as well as suggesting that more empirical attention should be given to the perceived benefits and costs of mentoring.

The relationship of advocacy and mentorship with female accountants' career success

Despite being the majority of new graduates for three decades, female accountants have not proportionately risen to the top of corporations or public accounting firms. Mentoring has been championed as an important variable in women's advancement, yet to date no research has examined how mentoring may be associated with improved career success measures such as organizational level and salary attained by female accountants. This study utilizes survey responses from almost 900 female accountants to assess the relationship between having a mentor and objective career outcomes, as well as beliefs about future promotions. We consider whether career success outcomes and beliefs about future promotions differ based upon mentor origin, mentor gender and mentor functions provided. Results indicate that having a mentor is associated with greater career advancement outcomes. Relationships that are characterized by stronger career development functions are associated with a higher perceived likelihood of promotion, and having a male mentor is associated with higher compensation and higher organizational level. Informal mentoring relationships are also associated with higher compensation and organizational level, supporting findings of previous research that suggests benefits of formal mentoring relationships are somewhat limited.

Mentoring Processes in Higher Education: Perspectives of Junior Athletic Training Faculty Members

Purpose: Mentorship is a valuable mechanism of socializing faculty members to higher education, but understanding of how mentoring relationships develop is limited. The purpose of this study was to seek a more complete understanding of how mentoring relationships develop for junior faculty members, and how these effective mentoring relationships can be fostered. Method: A qualitative, phenomenological design was used to examine junior athletic training faculty members’ experiences with mentoring. Twenty athletic training faculty members: 14 women, 6 men, 32±3 years of age and averaged 2.4±2.1 years as a full-time faculty member in an accredited athletic training program participated in this study. Participants completed one telephone interview, which was audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analyzed with an inductive phenomenological approach. Data saturation was obtained Trustworthiness strategies included peer review and the use of multi-analyst triangulation. Results: Junior faculty participated in informal and formal mentoring relationships that evolved over time, which aided their transition from doctoral student to full-time faculty member. Additionally, mentoring relationships were strengthened when participants took initiative, engaged in the relationship, and set clear goals. Mentors who exhibit good communication skills, willingness to participate, and genuine interest in the mentee are particularly valuable. Conclusions: Both formal and informal mentoring experiences appear to be valuable for junior faculty members, particularly informal relationships. If institutional mentoring programs are lacking then junior faculty should seek out additional mentoring opportunities. These findings also confirm existing literature on effective mentoring characteristics.

PROTOCOL: Electronic mentoring to promote positive youth outcomes for young people under 25: a systematic review.

PROTOCOL: Electronic mentoring to promote positive youth outcomes for young people under 25: a systematic review.

Can less be more? Mentoring functions, learning goal orientation, and novice entrepreneurs’ self-efficacy

PurposeOne of the main goals of entrepreneurial mentoring programs is to strengthen the mentees’ self-efficacy. However, the conditions in which entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) is developed through mentoring are not yet fully explored. The purpose of this paper is to test the combined effects of mentee’s learning goal orientation (LGO) and perceived similarity with the mentor and demonstrates the role of these two variables in mentoring relationships.Design/methodology/approachThe current study is based on a sample of 360 novice Canadian entrepreneurs who completed an online questionnaire. The authors used a cross-sectional analysis as research design.FindingsFindings indicate that the development of ESE is optimal when mentees present low levels of LGO and perceive high similarities between their mentor and themselves. Mentees with high LGO decreased their level of ESE with more in-depth mentoring received.Research limitations/implicationsThis study investigated a formal mentoring program with volunteer (unpaid) mentors. Generalization to informal mentoring relationships needs to be tested.Practical implicationsThe study shows that, in order to effectively develop self-efficacy in a mentoring situation, LGO should be taken into account. Mentors can be trained to modify mentees’ LGO to increase their impact on this mindset and mentees’ ESE.Originality/valueThis is the first empirical study that demonstrates the effects of mentoring on ESE and reveals a triple moderating effect of LGO and perceived similarity in mentoring relationships.