This study examined the impact of a 10-hour teacher-student mentoring relationship on the academic adjustment of at-risk college students. A quasi-experimental design involving a comparison group (NM: students with No Mentor), a High Relatedness/Autonomy group (HR/HA: students who perceived high levels of relatedness and autonomy during the mentoring process) and a Low Relatedness/Autonomy group (LR/LA: students who perceived low levels of relatedness and autonomy during the mentoring process) was used for that purpose. Academic adjustment and performance were assessed before (Time 1) and five months after involvement in mentoring (Time 3) for all students. Perceived relatedness and autonomy were assessed after the last mentoring meeting (Time 2) for students involved in mentoring relationships only. Results indicated better social adjustment and institutional attachment in college for the HR students than for the LR and NM students, even after controlling for initial adjustment, performance and social network dispositions. In addition, the LR and LA students presented lower academic and emotional adjustment in college and lower academic performance than NM, HR, and HA students. The potential positive and negative impacts of mentoring relationships are discussed in light of autonomy and relatedness processes. Editors' Strategic Implications: Especially valuable is the articulation of why mentoring might be expected to affect social and academic adjustment outcomes via its effects on the development of autonomy and relatedness. Application of attachment theory and measurement to the study of mentoring is a strategy that shows promise.

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This chapter reports findings from the evaluation of an academic mentoring program for late adolescents that highlight the role of exposition to structured activities and mentors' use of some behavioral strategies. Specifically, different types of interactions in mentoring (such as discussing personal projects, resolving academic problems, and participating in social activities) and different mentors' behaviors (such as emotional involvement, directivity, and reciprocity) were examined in relation to the quality of the mentoring relationship and mentees' adjustment at the end of the program. The findings generally support the initial assumption. Mentoring that focused more on activities produced significant and positive effects on mentee adjustment, whereas mentoring that focused almost exclusively on problem solving or mostly involved open discussion did not produce significant effects. Findings also indicate that mentors who expressed some directivity coupled with high emotional involvement and reciprocity were more likely to connect with their mentees and improve their academic adjustment.

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This article examines the hypothesis that academic mentoring of college students improves perceived parental and teacher educational involvement. College students were randomly assigned to a 1‐year academic mentoring program (protégés, n = 150) or a control group (n = 167) and completed questionnaires before, during, and after the intervention. Protégés perceived greater levels of parent and teacher educational involvement than did participants from the control group. However, the impact of the mentoring program on perceived parental involvement was found only among students who reported a secure relationship with their parents. Additional analyses suggest that some of these improvements were related to quality of the working alliance between mentors and protégés and to supportive behaviors exhibited by mentors during the intervention.