Enhancing the effectiveness of a youth mentorship program : the role of mentor's prosociality

Abstract

This study is aimed to investigate the role of mentor's prosocial personality in mentor-mentee relations and the key factors in developing and supporting a mentorship program. Three aspects were investigated. First of all, this study reframes youth mentorship program from the perspective of ecological systems theory and constructs a profile of quality mentoring relationship in terms of the process and role of relationship building. Secondly, it focuses on the cordial mentor mentee relationship, based on which mentor, with his or her prosocial personality, can contribute positively to mentee’s creative and productive development. More specifically, this study provides empirical evidence that the level of mentor other-oriented empathy and helpfulness help predict the level of cordial mentor-mentee relations. This also demonstrates that on a social level, satisfaction in a mentoring relationship makes a relationship sustainable and brings benefit to both parties concerned. Finally, this study suggests that personality plays an important role in the program design, such as recruiting and selecting volunteers, and bringing into play mentor's prosocial personality in the training and supervision as well. Data were collected from the participants and mentors from the Beijing Intensive Community Mentorship Program (BICM) on supporting the development of migrant workers' children in Beijing. Mixed methods approach was used for the purpose of gaining a better understanding of the research questions. The relationship between mentor’s prosocial personality and mentee’s positive development was analyzed by Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The overall direct-effect model and the cordial model were compared and analyzed at different time points. Mentor self-reports and mentee interviews were conducted to triangulate the questionnaire data in the model building efforts. This study also discusses the future directions of research and its implications for youth mentorship programs as well as mentorship programs in cross-disciplinary contexts.