Mentoring Within A Graduate School Setting

College Student Journal, March, 1999 by Shalonda Kelly, John H. Schweitzer

(a) Between Groups df=2 for this table.

(b) Here, the reports of students having both mentors are greater than those having a student mentor, a faculty mentor, or neither.

(c) Here, the reports of students having no mentor are less than those having a student mentor, a faculty mentor, or both.

(**) p<.01.

(***) p<.001.

(****) p<.0001.

As shown in Tables 5 and 6 and Figures 1 through 4, the interactions between the graduate students' mentor status and either their minority or gender status predicted significant differences in their reports of both the racial/ethnic and academic climate. Minority students who had no mentor, a student mentor, or a faculty mentor were more likely to perceive differential treatment based upon race as compared to minority students with both a student and a faculty mentor. Conversely, Caucasian and international students who had no mentor, a student mentor, or a faculty mentor were less likely to perceive that the faculty treated students differently based upon race/ethnicity than when they had both a student and a faculty mentor (see Figure 1). In regards to the academic climate, minority graduate students with no mentors had significantly worse perceptions of the faculty's academic advising and encouragement of their professional development as compared to Caucasian and international students who had no mentor. Further, unlike minority and international students, Caucasian students' satisfaction with their academic advising and their beliefs that the faculty encourages their professional development increased as their mentoring status improved (see Figures 2 and 3).

[Figures 1-4 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Table 5 Perceptions of Racial/Ethnic and Academic Climate Based Upon Mentoring Status and Racial/Ethnic Group

                               Differential   Academic

Source                    df     Treatment    Advising

Mentor Status (MS)         2     4.77(**)     17.87(****)
Racial/Ethnic Group (G)    2     6.48(***)     4.29(*)
MS X G                     4     4.43(***)     2.74(*)
Mean Square Error                 .09           .61

                                   F

                              Encouraging

Source                    Professional Growth

Mentor Status (MS)            14.19(****)
Racial/Ethnic Group (G)        4.59(*)
MS X G                         3.20(*)
Mean Square Error               .82

Note: The error for the df for the Differential Treatment, Academic Advising, and Encouraging Professional Growth subscales are 633,547, and 611, respectively.

(*) p<.05.

(**) p<.01.

(***) p<.005.

(****) p<.001.

Table 6 Perceptions of Differential Treatment Based Upon Mentoring Status and Gender

Source                df         F

Mentor Status (MS)     2   13.59(****)
Gender (G)             1    1.40
MS X G                 2    5.78(***)
Error                627    (.08)

Note: The value enclosed in parentheses represents the mean square error. (***) p<.005.

(****) p>.001.

The women who had either a student mentor, a faculty mentor, or both reported more differential treatment by faculty according to the student's race/ethnicity than those with no mentors. Similarly for the men, those with both types of mentors also reported significantly higher perceptions of differential treatment based upon race as compared to those without mentors. However, unlike the women, those men having either a student or a faculty mentor also reported significantly lower perceptions of differential treatment as compared to the men with no mentors (see Table 6, Figure 4).