Revalidation of the Mentoring Competency Assessment to evaluate skills of research mentors: The MCA-21

Abstract

Introduction: The Mentoring Competency Assessment (MCA) is an example of a validated instrument for measuring mentor skills for postsecondary Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine research. The purpose of this study was to revalidate the MCA scale using a larger, more diverse population since the original MCA was validated on a small sample of predominantly senior white male faculty. Methods: The MCA was completed by 1626 mentors from a survey data set of 1759 respondents who participated in eight or more hours of face-to-face Entering Mentoring-based training between 2010 and 2019. We conducted principal component analysis (PCA) with varimax rotation to investigate the internal structure of the MCA and Hatcher’s criteria were applied. After a team of mentoring experts independently interpreted the PCA results and reached a consensus on the interpretations of the components, factor analysis and internal consistency reliability analysis were applied to assess the construct validity and the reliability. Results: While the 26-item MCA instrument was originally validated with six subscales, through the factor and reliability analyses, all the parameter estimates for each item of seven components of 24-item MCA were significant and had relatively high internal consistency; the alpha coefficient for the components ranged from 0.77 to 0.86. Conclusions: Five items from the MCA have been dropped, leaving a condensed 21 item scale (MCA-21) which loads onto six competencies, and should now be used to effectively measure mentoring skills. We provide recommendations for furthering the scale development and validation of common measures.

Mentoring up for early career investigators: Empowering mentees to proactively engage in their mentoring relationships

“…Building skills towards functional and intentional mentorship relationships requires input from both members of the mentor-mentee dyad [ 4 ], and the Mentoring Up curricula provides valuable additions to the Entering Mentoring and Entering Research educational portfolio with the intent of providing training that addresses the unique needs of early career scientists. Recently, the MCA was revalidated for mentors taking Entering Mentoring [ 39 ] and work is ongoing to validate the MCA for early career investigator populations completing Mentoring Up training. The expansion of validated tools to measure mentorship skills, alongside continuous improvement to curricula, the development of new evidence-based modules and interventions, and research into the dissemination and implementation of training to improve facilitator capacity, provide promising areas for future work on improving the career and professional development of early career investigators.…”

Mentor training for junior faculty: a brief evaluation report from the Georgia Clinical and Translational Science Alliance

“…In another study, revalidation of the MCA resulted in a 21-item scale that is recommended as a common measure to assess mentoring training. 27 The analysis also identified new competencies, such as mentee self-efficacy and navigating mentoring networks, that could be explored with continued measurement development. 27 As mentor training programs evolve, continued evaluation and refinement of measures that reflect the content of the training will improve understanding about training effectiveness.…”

Learning to Prioritize Our Collaborative Opportunities: Overcoming the Bright Shiny Object Syndrome

“…Although often an emphasis on professional development, mentoring competencies, and mentor training programs do not typically place an explicit focus on the ability to weigh and negotiate competing professional opportunities. 9,[37][38][39][40] Importantly, mentors and mentees should consider power dynamics when delegating and accepting opportunities. For example, a mentee may find it difficult to say no when there is a large power differential.…”