This study examined the degree to which mentoring highly aggressive children was associated with changes in mentors' attitudes, personality, and attachment tendencies. Participants were 102 college students who each mentored an aggressive, high-risk child across three academic semesters (spring, fall, spring). We examined pre- to post-mentoring changes in attitudes about mentoring efficacy and future parenting, Big Five personality characteristics, and attachment tendencies. Mentors also rated the impact of the mentoring relationship in their lives, and both mentors and mentees rated support of the mentoring relationship. Results indicated a statistically significant decrease over time in mentors' ratings of self-efficacy, openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, and agreeableness. These findings held even when controlling for ratings of relationship impact. However, mentors who rated the mentoring relationship as supportive tended to experience increased openness, conscientiousness, and agreeableness and less attachment-related avoidance over time. Child-rated support negatively predicted mentors' post-mentoring attitudes toward future parenting. Discussed are the potential costs of mentoring highly aggressive children and strategies that could help increase benefits to mentors.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of gender and gender‐role stereotypes on judgments of help‐giving. As part of a 2 × 2 within‐subjects design, 40 undergraduates read 4 different scenarios that described either a man or a woman needing help in either a stereotypically masculine or a stereotypically feminine situation. Although male participants felt more sympathy for men in stereotypically feminine situations and for women in stereotypically masculine situations, they were no more likely to help these individuals than they were to help those in gender‐consistent situations. By contrast, women were more likely to help people in gender‐inconsistent situations, despite feeling the most sympathy for people needing help in masculine situations. Implications for Weiner's (1980) attribution model of help‐giving and Nadler & Fisher's (1986) threat‐to‐self‐esteem model are discussed.