Inside the black box of school-based mentoring relationship development

Description

School-based mentoring (SBM) programs are exponentialiy increasing and offer important relational benefits to at-risk youth. Specifically, mentored at-risk youth may enjoy relating to (companionship ) and building skills with (collaboration ) their mentor. However mentees may experience psychological harm if the mentoring relationship does not develop, thus, we need to know how to ensure that positive relationships are fostered. Despite the understanding that forming strong SBM relationships is paramount for obtaining positive outcomes for mentored youth, little is known about how strong SBM relationships form. Mentor social perspective taking (SPT), the mentor's capacity to figure out the mentee's thoughts and feelings sits at the heart of success or failure in these relationships. The first step in the SPT process involves motivating individuals to engage in the process. This investigation examined what motivates mentors to take their mentees' perspective, and what results from mentor SPT attempts within two critical aspects of mentor-mentee relationships: companionship and collaboration.

Eight mentor-mentee case studies revealed six SPT motivation factors influenced mentor SPT attempts and mentors fostered companionship and collaboration through seven SPT task types. SPT motivation across all six motivation factors appeared to depend substantially on how mentors perceived their role as mentor. For example, mentors engaged in a "balancing act" between advocating for the mentee and not coming across as "too pushy" or taking on the role of a "parent". Mentors also seemed particularly motivated to read their mentees when mentee behavior was atypical. For example, if the mentee was usually happy, the mentor was motivated to understand why the mentee was withdrawn. The study's results and conclusions extend previous findings on SPT motivation (Gehlbach, Brinkworth, & Wang, 2012) into SBM relationships, a particular type of relationship critical for the success of mentoring at-risk youth in school-based contexts. Implications include suggestions for SBM practitioners to engage in discussion with their mentors to increase their awareness of taking the mentee's perspective, and a call to SBM researchers for a new line of inquiry into each of the SPT factors which can impact mentoring relationships with the goal of developing future training for SBM practitioners, mentors, and mentees.