When Insecure Attachment Dispositions Affect Mentoring Relationship Quality: An Exploration of Interactive Mentoring Contexts

Abstract

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.

Attachment Tendencies, Big 5 Personality Traits, and Self‐Efficacy as Predictors of Mentors’ Relationships with Aggressive Children

“…Importantly, we found no evidence that mentor characteristics predicted child-rated match quality, nor were predictors of mentor-rated match quality predictive of low-quality matches, our proxy for poor quality matches. The findings support continued investigation of formal assessment of individual differences in mentors as a way to predict the relational quality of their matches (Goldner, 2017;Larose et al, 2019).…”

“…First, we investigated the degree to which these three types of mentor characteristics predict match quality. Consistent with previous research (Larose et al, 2019), we hypothesized that the insecure attachment tendencies of avoidance and ambivalence would be associated with lower match quality. Prior research on mentors' personality traits is limited (Goldner, 2016;Manges, 2016), but we drew from the larger literature on Big Five traits to hypothesize that agreeableness, openness, and conscientiousness would be positively associated with match quality.…”

“…Our supposition was that mentors' capacity for as well as difficulty with providing a supportive relationship could be activated by the presence of conflict in the mentoring match (Pistole, 1989;Tett & Burnett, 2003). Overall, we expected to find that mentor characteristics would be more predictive of match quality in relationships in which mentors experienced higher levels of conflict (Jensen- Campbell et al, 2007;Larose et al, 2019).…”

The Comparative Roles of Mentor Self-Efficacy and Empathy in Fostering Relationship Quality with Youth

“…Although a range of contextual factors, such as program infrastructure (Keller & DuBois, 2019) and family involvement (Spencer & Basualdo-Delmonico, 2014) have been linked to the quality of mentoring relationships and program effectiveness, the characteristics of the individuals central to the dyadic relationship have the most direct impact on the quality of the connection. Mentees' individual characteristics and background experiences, particularly their interpersonal history, influence the way they engage in, and perceive, relationships with unfamiliar adults (Williamson et al, 2019); however, there is also evidence that a mentee's behavior (as the mentoring recipient) also depends on their mentor's interpersonal history and the nature of their mentoring interactions (Larose et al, 2019). Furthermore, as an intervention strategy that sets out to support young people who experience adversity and disadvantage (Jarjoura et al, 2018), it is primarily the responsibility of mentors to foster quality connections with their young mentees (Doty et al, 2019).…”