The aim of the present study was to examine how college students' retrospective reports of youth-mentoring experiences were associated with current sense of belonging and community, academic motivation, and college self-efficacy, and to determine hows these outcomes vary as a function of mentoring relationship quality, duration, and type (e.g., natural versus program-sponsored). Analyses were conducted in Mplus 8.0 on a sample of 400 college students. Our findings suggest that most college students endorse a mentoring relationship. We found that having a mentor was associated with increased college self-efficacy. Among those with a youth mentor, relationship quality was positively associated with sense of belonging and college self-efficacy while duration of the mentoring relationship and relationship type were not associated with college-related outcomes. Further analyses were conducted to assess how the associations between relationship quality and the college-related outcomes varied as a function of mentoring duration and type. Relationship quality was uniquely associated with these college-related outcomes over and above student gender, race, and first-generation status. Our findings suggest it may be important to prioritize the enhancement of mentor relationship quality as a mechanism to affect change in academic-related outcomes.
Keywords: Academic motivation; College self-efficacy; Mentoring relationship quality; Sense of belonging; Sense of community; Youth mentoring.
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