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This study examines three potential contributions (i.e., additive only, hierarchical compensatory, and hierarchical conditional) of mentor support to youth academic adjustment, taking into account interactions with support from mothers and teachers. We derived data from a larger study of the Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) of Canada community mentoring program. The sample included 427 youth (average age 9.8 years; 64% girls, 56% White) who received one-to-one community-based mentoring for at least three months. We assessed perceptions of support from mothers and teachers before the match and assessed perceptions of support from mentors five times throughout the mentoring experience. Hierarchical linear regression analyses showed that mentor support predicted positive changes in youth academic adjustment (i.e., school attitude, academic self-efficacy, assistance seeking, and problem solving) mainly when mentees already reported high support from their mother. This finding clearly supports the conditional model and invites researchers to question the assumption that mentoring constitutes a corrective experience for young people (i.e., the compensatory model). BBBS agencies are strongly encouraged to involve parents in the mentoring process and to view them as experts, assets, and allies in their effort to meet the youth's needs.

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In this study, we explored the effects of mentor and mentee insecure attachment dispositions (ambivalence and avoidance) on mentoring relationship quality while considering the specific nature of the interactive mentoring context. Participants (N = 252 matches) were enrolled in the MIRES program, a one-year college-based mentoring program that matches late adolescent mentees (17-year-olds) with young adult mentors (23-year-olds), designed to facilitate the transition to college. Using data drawn from mentors’ logbooks (at nine time points), two interactive contexts were addressed: (1) situations involving mentee academic issues and mentor proactive academic support (academically oriented), and (2) situations involving mentee personal issues and mentor emotional support, and caring (emotionally oriented). Linear regression results showed that both mentors’ and mentees’ avoidance uniquely predicted lower reports of mentoring relationship quality, but especially in emotionally oriented matches and when their partners’ attachment ambivalence was high. In matches less focused on emotional support, mentors’ attachment avoidance interacted with mentees’ ambivalence to predict positive mentoring relationship quality. Theoretical, practical, and mentor training issues are discussed.

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