Mentoring ethnic minority counseling and clinical psychology students: A multicultural, ecological, and relational model.

Journal of Counseling Psychology 2015, Vol. 62, No. 4, 592– 607

© 2015 American Psychological Association 0022-0167/15/$12.00 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/cou0000079

Mentoring Ethnic Minority Counseling and Clinical Psychology Students: A Multicultural, Ecological, and Relational Model Anne W. Chan

Christine J. Yeh

Stanford University

University of San Francisco

John D. Krumboltz This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.

Stanford University The aim of the current study was to understand the role of race and culture in successful mentoring relationships in graduate school. We examined the practices of 9 faculty mentors working with 15 ethnic minority doctoral students in counseling and clinical psychology. Grounded theory was used to discern unifying patterns and to formulate a theory of multicultural mentoring. Five overall themes significant to multicultural mentoring emerged: (a) career support and guidance tailored for ethnic minorities, (b) relationality between mentors and protégés, (c) significance of contexts, (d) interconnections across contexts, and (e) multidirectionality of interactions between contexts. The 5 themes combined to form a multicultural, ecological, and relational model of mentoring. Our findings suggest that mentoring ethnic minority students can be successful, productive, and satisfying for both mentors and protégés when mentors possess the necessary skills, time, commitment, and multicultural competencies. Implications for doctoral programs in counseling and clinical psychology are discussed, along with recommendations for future research directions. Keywords: mentoring, ethnic minority doctoral students, counseling psychology, clinical psychology, multicultural

ley, 2008; Rogers & Molina, 2006). Rogers and Molina (2006) found that 82% of psychology departments successful at recruiting and retaining students of color had established mentoring programs. Such findings are especially pertinent in psychology where there has not been a substantial increase in the number of ethnic minority psychology doctoral graduates since 1997 (American Psychological Association [APA] Office of Minority Affairs, 2008). Moreover, there is an underrepresentation of ethnic minority psychology faculty and doctoral graduates, disproportionate to their population demographics (APA Office of Minority Affairs, 2008). Although mentoring has been recognized as beneficial for clinical and counseling psychology doctoral students, ethnic minority students seeking mentorship often experience a number of difficulties. First, ethnic minority students tend to prefer and report more satisfaction with racially homogeneous mentor relationships (Blake-Beard, Bayne, Crosby, & Muller, 2011; Ortiz-Walters & Gilson, 2005), but are less likely to find same race mentors (Schlosser, Talleyrand, Lyons, Kim, & Johnson, 2011) due to the lack of ethnic minority faculty in doctoral programs (APA Office of Minority Affairs, 2008; Gasman, Hirschfeld, & Vultaggio, 2008). Second, ethnic minority students paired with European American mentors have been found to receive less overall mentoring benefits and psychosocial support than protégés in same race dyads (Blake-Beard et al., 2011; Ortiz-Walters & Gilson, 2005). Research has shown less ease, lower satisfaction, and more difficult communication in mixed race mentoring dyads as opposed to same race dyads (Ortiz-Walters & Gilson, 2005). A barrier to effective multiculturally sensitive mentoring may be

Mentorship has been identified as the most critical variable related to the academic and career development of graduate students (Hollingsworth & Fassinger, 2002). In the fields of counseling and clinical psychology, mentoring has been significantly associated with research self-efficacy (Hollingsworth & Fassinger, 2002), decision to pursue an academic career (Dohm & Cummings, 2002), and satisfaction with one’s doctoral program (Clark, Harden, & Johnson, 2000). Mentoring experiences have also been shown to mediate the relationship between the counseling psychology training environment and research productivity, serving as an important predictor of scholarly output (Hollingsworth & Fassinger, 2002). The benefits of mentoring have implications for psychology departments and the profession as a whole. Mentoring has been recommended as a means of increasing the retention and graduation rates of ethnic minorities in higher education (Evans & Cok-

This article was published Online First June 8, 2015. Anne W. Chan, School of Education, Stanford University; Christine J. Yeh, School of Education, University of San Francisco; John D. Krumboltz, School of Education, Stanford University. Anne W. Chan is currently in private practice in Union City, California. The School of Education at Stanford University is now the Graduate School of Education. We thank all the participants of this study who graciously shared their experiences of mentoring. We also thank Shelley Goldman and David Fetterman for their feedback. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Anne W. Chan, 3209 Whipple Road, Union City, CA 94587. E-mail: annewchan88@ gmail.com 592

This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.

MENTORING ETHNIC MINORITY DOCTORAL STUDENTS

inadequate knowledge about culture-specific challenges for ethnic minority students, such as lack of role models (Johnson, 2003; Zalaquett, 2006), racism (Yeh, Borrero, Tito, & Petaia, 2014; Yeh, Ching, Okubo, & Luthar, 2007), family obligations (Yeh et al., 2014; Yeh et al., 2007), and a disconnect of cultural and professional identities (Yeh et al., 2014; Yeh et al., 2007). Multiculturally sensitive mentoring that offers support and guidance around these issues can be beneficial and even critical to ethnic minority student success (Thomas, 2001). Currently, there is scant research on the mentoring needs of ethnic minority protégés— especially in clinical and counseling psychology—and on cross-racial mentoring relationships (Chandler, Kram, & Yip, 2011; Hu, Thomas, & Lance, 2008). Two mentoring models address this gap in the literature and inform our theoretical framework (Benishek, Bieschke, Park, & Slattery, 2004; Fassinger, 1997). Fassinger’s (1997) feminist mentoring model pinpoints the mentoring processes of power, relational dynamics, collaboration, commitment to diversity, integration of dichotomies, and incorporation of political analysis. Though notable for its inclusion of feminist and diversity concerns, Fassinger’s (1997) model posits diversity as a separate element of mentoring (Benishek et al., 2004). In response, Benishek et al. (2004) proposed a multicultural feminist model that explicitly infused multicultural considerations into the mentoring dimensions identified by Fassinger. Both models set benchmarks in their inclusion of multiculturalism in mentoring; however, neither was empirically derived or tested. Further, the mentor characteristics identified in these models, such as “shares all of self” and “eschews hierarchies” could be enhanced by concrete details on how mentors demonstrate these functions in praxis. Using Fassinger’s (1997) and Benishek et al.’s (2004) models as our theoretical framework, we sought to examine the practices of mentors successful at mentoring ethnic minority doctoral students in counseling and clinical psychology. Our overall aim was to formulate an empirically derived multicultural model of mentoring with both theoretical and practical implications for mentors. We specifically focused on the experiences of faculty and doctoral students in clinical and counseling psychology because these disciplines hold multifaceted requirements encompassing research, teaching, clinical practice, and academic coursework, and we wanted to understand how mentors guide their protégés through these manifold and varied demands. To uncover practices critical to the successful mentoring of ethnic minority students in these fields, we chose to focus on mentors who had been lauded by their colleagues and/or students for their mentorship of ethnic minority students. We sought an in-depth understanding of mentoring in one-on-one dyads to provide a “thick description” (Denzin, 1989, p. 83) that goes beyond surface-level, readily observable phenomena. Hence we opted to examine mentor–protégé dyads that could be categorized as “high-quality connections,” as opposed to functional or transitory exchanges that may not be considered true relationships (Chandler et al., 2011). For the purposes of this study, we define a mentoring relationship as a one-to-one relationship between a more experienced member (mentor) and a less experienced member (protégé) that is aimed to promote the professional and personal growth of the protégé through coaching, support, and guidance. Through individualized attention, the mentor transfers needed information, feedback, and encouragement to the protégé as well as provides

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emotional support and recommendation (Healy & Welchert, 1990; Mullen, 1994). The role of a mentor can coincide with that of an advisor, though not all advising relationships are mentoring ones (Sedlacek, Benjamin, Schlosser, & Sheu, 2010). An advisor is generally an assigned faculty member who guides a student through a graduate program (Schlosser, Knox, Moskovitz, & Hill, 2003); the quality of an advisor’s support may range widely from negative (indifferent or perfunctory) to positive (caring, collaborative, and respectful; Schlosser et al., 2003). Some advisors may be viewed as mentors by their advisees. In this study, we included mentors who were advisors to their protégés as well as those who did not serve in an advisory capacity. Our main research questions were as follows: 1.

What are the activities and practices of mentors who work successfully with their ethnic minority protégés in the fields of counseling and clinical psychology?

2.

How do mentors handle or address issues of race and cultural differences when mentoring ethnic minority protégés?

Method Participants The sample included 24 participants: nine faculty mentors and their 15 doctoral student protégés. In terms of inclusion criteria, each mentor participated with his or her protégé(s); each mentor could have up to two protégés enrolled in the study. Two potential male participants could not be included because one declined to participate and the other was not of ethnic minority status. Among the mentors, two were male and seven were female. There were two African American, one Mexican American, four Asian American, and two European American mentors. The mentors were at the following stages of their careers: One was an assistant professor, four were associate professors, and four were full professors. The mentors’ age range was 40 to 74 years, and they classified their socioeconomic status as “middle” or “upper/middle” class. In terms of the protégés, one was male and 14 were female. Protégés were at different stages of their degree programs: Four were predissertation, five were at the dissertation stage, and six were at the internship/job stage. There were two African American, two Latino/a American, eight Asian American, and three biracial protégés. The age range of the protégés was 25 to 47 years. Three protégés reported their socioeconomic status as “working class,” two identified as “upper/middle class,” and 10 categorized themselves as “middle” class. Twenty-two of the participants identified as heterosexual, one identified as lesbian, and one identified as bisexual. Two protégés and one mentor were first generation immigrants, seven protégés and two mentors were second generation immigrants, and the remaining participants (12) were third or greater generations. Three professors and four protégés were in clinical psychology; six professors and 11 protégés were in counseling psychology.

Researchers The first author, a first generation, Chinese American, fifth-year doctoral student recruited participants, conducted the interviews,


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and coded the transcripts. Her 6-year mentoring relationship with an African American mentor and respected elder in the field informed her perceptions about quality mentoring. She analyzed the data under the close guidance of the other authors. The second author, a Taiwanese American, second generation associate professor of counseling psychology, reviewed the data and emerging themes, and provided feedback on all aspects of the research project. The third author, a European American professor of counseling psychology, reviewed analytic memos and drafts over the course of the research. Members of the team met to discuss relevant quotes, emerging themes, potential biases, and the development of the theoretical model. The biases and assumptions of the primary research team included (a) assumptions about mentoring as a positive and beneficial process; (b) experiential knowledge of mentoring, both from a mentor’s as well as a protégé’s perspective; and (c) awareness and personal experiences of ethnic minority status in a White dominated profession. Following Lincoln and Guba’s (1985) recommendations for addressing researcher bias, The first author kept an ongoing reflexive journal to bring to consciousness any values, biases, assumptions, and allegiances that could impact the analytic process. This journaling practice was maintained throughout the data collection, analysis, and write-up phases of the project. In addition, the members of the research team met in person to discuss potential biases during the course of the research. Two additional raters independently transcribed several transcripts and served as external auditors for our coding process. Their biases included lived experiences as European American women, professional status as academics at an Ivy League university, and research knowledge from a qualitative lens. We attempted to bracket and minimize these biases by (a) opening our analyses and soliciting feedback from a wide range of people differing in age, life experiences, and other demographics; (b) sharing our work with a peer for debriefing and feedback; and (c) presenting preliminary results at national conferences for feedback from academics and community members.

Selection Criteria “Purposeful sampling” (Patton, 2002) was used in our recruitment procedure to obtain an in-depth understanding of mentoring ethnic minorities in counseling and clinical psychology. Participants were identified in the following ways: The first author (a) posted messages on psychology listservs requesting nominations of successful mentors in counseling and clinical psychology; and (b) researched different divisions of the APA to identify individuals who had received awards or honorary citations for their mentoring efforts, such as the Charles and Shirley Thomas Award (given by the Society for the Psychological Study of Culture, Ethnicity, and Race for significant contributions to the mentoring and development of students of color). We elected to use these two recruitment strategies to locate mentors who had been publicly honored as well as those who may not have received formal recognition but were nevertheless deemed excellent by their students. Our combined recruitment strategies resulted in a list of 45 possible mentor participants, 17 of whom closely fit the parameters of this study. The first author contacted these 17 potential participants via a standardized e-mail that stated their nominations by

colleagues and/or students, and briefly explained the purpose and rationale for the study. Nine mentors responded to our invitation to join the study. Three of these mentors had received mentoring awards; the rest were nominated by their students/peers. After each interview, the mentors provided the names of two of their protégés to interview; all except one of the protégés agreed to participate.

Data Sources Multiple data collection methods were used to facilitate triangulation and lessen the impact of reactivity, recall error, and inaccuracy of self-report (Patton, 2002; Taylor & Bogdan, 1998). Data were collected from three sources: (a) separate in-depth, semistructured interviews with mentors and their protégés; (b) archival materials such as e-mail exchanges and publications; and (c) two in vivo mentoring sessions of dyads who consented to be recorded. The interviews and mentoring sessions were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim, resulting in over 800 pages of data. To protect participants’ confidentiality (Haverkamp, 2005), all identifying information was altered, except for racial and cultural demographics because these were foci of the study. We used participants’ terminology for their racial or ethnic identities, unless there was a consistency issue (e.g., participants identifying as “South Asian” and “Indian Asian”). Mentors and their protégés were individually interviewed using a semistructured protocol to allow for both corroboration and flexibility (Taylor & Bogdan, 1998; see Appendix). Interviews lasted 1 to 2 hr. The interview protocol was based on (a) a review of the literature on mentor functions (Benishek et al., 2004; Fassinger, 1997; Kram, 1985), (b) conversations with established mentors in the field, and (c) research team discussions. Specific interview questions with mentors focused on how they spent time with their protégés, the types of activities and practices they did as mentors, and how they dealt with racial/cultural differences. To confirm mentor responses, the protégés were interviewed with the same semistructured interview format but with questions tailored to their experiences. The interview protocol (see the Appendix) was tested with four mentors and their protégés in a pilot study (Chan, 2008) and was revised following each interview. The revisions consisted of deleting redundant questions as well as adding questions pertaining to mentoring practices absent or deemphasized in the literature, such as mentor self-disclosure and gifting. We adopted these revisions to go beyond our preconceived assumptions and to stay open to learning about new or less traditional ways of mentoring. Three qualitative researchers with expertise in mentoring provided additional feedback (Yeh & Inman, 2007) that helped us with optimal wording of the questions. Protégés were also invited to share archival materials (such as e-mails, etc.) as supplemental documentation of their mentoring relationships. We received and analyzed 298 e-mails exchanged between the mentors and protégés.

Grounded Theory Grounded theory was used as our research and conceptual methodology because it emphasizes the discovery and development of theory through the systematic collection and analysis of data rather than from preconceived assumptions or prior theoretical frameworks (Taylor & Bogdan, 1998). Because there is limited


empirical research on our topic, grounded theory is an appropriate methodology for generating theory in our exploratory research study.


Trustworthiness of Data Prolonged engagement is “the investment of sufficient time to achieve certain purposes: learning the ‘culture,’ testing for misinformation introduced by distortions either of the self or of the respondents, and building trust” (Lincoln & Guba, 1985, p. 301). Collection of data occurred over an extended period of over 2 years. During this time we had in-depth conversations about mentoring with participants and nonparticipants, as well as with mentors and nonmentors alike. This ongoing intensive exchange of ideas deepened our understanding of our topic and resulted in a continual refinement of our analyses. Triangulation involves the use of two or more sources or types of data and/or methods of data collection to check for the validity of findings (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). In this study, triangulation was achieved by our inclusion of perspectives from both mentors and protégés, as well as additional sources of data such as two in vivo mentoring sessions. Because mentoring research has tended to focus on either the protégés’ or the mentors’ perspectives, we opted to examine both viewpoints because they can diverge dramatically (Ortiz-Walters & Gilson, 2005). Peer debriefing was used to establish credibility, confront biases, and reveal hidden aspects of the inquiry (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). The first author met a peer biweekly, with whom she exchanged drafts, analytic memos, and theoretical notes for critical feedback. We also shared our analyses with five mentors and six protégés to check that our interpretations resonated with them. We incorporated their feedback as we further refined our analyses and model.

Data Analysis Coding. Using grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967), the data (i.e., all interviews, the two mentoring sessions, archival data, memos, and notes) were coded to identify patterns as well as negative, deviant, and missing instances (mentors not performing certain activities; DeVault, 1995). To ensure coding accuracy, two auditors external to the project (a faculty member and a doctoral student with several years of qualitative training) coded several transcripts. The first author compared her codes with theirs and recoded as needed. Our analysis began with “open coding” (Strauss, 1987), which involved a close scrutiny and multiple rereadings of the data for any words, phrases, or sentences that had potential relevance. We then sorted similar concepts into groups and utilized the process of “axial coding” to gain a deeper understanding of the conditions, contexts, and consequences of these categories (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). An example of axial coding involved: believing in the protégé, building confidence, showing confidence, providing emotional support, encouraging, and saying positive things. These concepts were grouped into one category termed validation. We identified subcategories and analyzed possible relationships between them. We next performed “selective coding,” which involved coding in terms of one core variable (Strauss, 1987) and connecting it to other categories (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). The process of selective coding helped us not only

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to think deeply about each category, but also continually forced us to refine our core categories. The “constant comparison” method was used to identify emergent themes, discern systematic patterns, refine developing concepts, and determine relationships between categories, with the goal to form a theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). Following Glaser and Strauss’s (1967) guidelines, we cross-compared the codes in each category, refined our categories and their properties, and rechecked that each category contained enough evidence to warrant being classified as a category. Finally, we scrutinized our list of categories to check for any overlap. When no new categories, concepts, or relationships in the data could be discerned, we reached the point of “theoretical saturation” (Dey, 1999, p. 8) where we felt confident that each category was distinct and contained sufficient evidence. We then integrated and accumulated our hypotheses about the relationships between all the categories to find a broad enough conceptualization that fit the data as well as the properties of each major analytic category. The theory that emerged from our data was a theory of multicultural mentoring (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). The final step in discovering grounded theory was to validate the theory against the data through a systematic depiction of the relationships between categories (Strauss & Corbin, 1990).

Results The mentors as a group shared many common practices and engaged in similar activities with their protégés. We organized our findings of mentor practices first in terms of their overall purpose and second in terms of the main targets of these practices. Table 1 outlines the activities and practices reported by the mentors (Mentor practices), the overall purpose of these practices (Mentor functions), and the main targets of these practices (Dimension). In addition, five overarching themes emerged from the data and were central in the evolution and development of our model of multicultural mentoring: (a) career support and guidance tailored for ethnic minorities, (b) relationality between mentors and protégés, (c) significance of contexts, (d) interconnections across contexts, and (e) multidirectionality of interactions between contexts. Each theme is discussed in the following, together with relevant subcategories.

Theme 1: Career Support and Guidance Tailored for Ethnic Minorities Providing career development support is a major component of mentoring (Chan, 2010; Kram, 1985) and as expected, the mentors in this study were found to support the professional development of their protégés by (a) discussing career possibilities; (b) building their skills and providing opportunities in research, publishing, counseling, teaching, presenting, and reviewing; (c) providing quality feedback; (d) assisting with crafting the curriculum vitae; (e) providing financial and practical support as needed; (f) writing letters of recommendation; and (g) building confidence (see Table 1). Although we expected the mentors to facilitate their protégés’ careers, it was striking to witness how proactive they were in offering advice and help (Chan, 2008). For instance, on their own initiative, the mentors offered research assistantships, provided


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Table 1 Dimensions, Mentor Functions, and Mentor Practices Dimension

Mentor function

Mentor practices


Individual

Providing support, coaching, Discussing possible careers, goals, and dreams and resources for Building protégés’ skills and providing opportunities in research, teaching, counseling, individual professional and writing, publishing, presenting, editing, and reviewing career development Providing quality feedback on student work Assisting protégés with planning and crafting curriculum vitae Providing practical help and financial assistance as needed Writing detailed letters of recommendation Affirming and building protégés’ confidence Relationship Building trust and rapport Talking about cultural differences within the relationship Listening Having a holistic understanding of protégés that includes their racial/ethnic/cultural identities Maintaining good communication practices Self-disclosing when appropriate Using appropriate humor Acknowledging limitations and mistakes Giving small gifts to support protégés’ careers Behaving with integrity and staying true to their word Institutional, professional, Providing protection Protecting when issues of race, discrimination, and racism occur and societal Providing support for acculturative stress and coping Providing validation Making positive remarks, expressing confidence in protégés Empowering protégés and changing negative beliefs about their capabilities; providing reassurance that they belong in the profession Writing letters of recommendation Nominating protégés for awards Providing emotional support Building supportive networks Introducing protégés to influential people to build community/family Providing access to the Giving advice on negotiating unwritten rules inside story Being available and accessible Giving time Being proactive Giving protégés new opportunities within and outside academia Role modeling and coaching Expanding vision of protégés Providing financial assistance and support

scholarship information, and gave books and journals. They not only informed their protégés about conferences to attend, they also invited their protégés to present with them and introduced them to colleagues so their protégés could build a professional network and community: “. . . introducing them to colleagues that could be helpful. . . . not just because they’re trying to rub shoulders with famous people . . . but people who can actually help them and have some common interests with them” (biracial Asian/European American male mentor). The mentors customized their career guidance to the unique concerns of ethnic minority students, such as coaching them on how to handle criticism of ethnic minority research: I try to give them awareness of . . . challenges they might be up against as people of color and sometimes their research is devalued and I emphasize that it’s really important to do rigorous work because sometimes the standards we’re held to are sometimes above those for other areas. (Biracial Asian/European American male mentor)

Other mentors proactively expanded the career horizons of their ethnic minority protégés who did not envision themselves as academics: I’ve been trying to remove that exclusion in their sense of themselves. . . . They do not see themselves as going into academic positions, so I sort of see my role as their mentor and gradually

bringing them into that world and letting them realize that there’s a part of them that could enjoy that world. (African American female mentor)

Theme 2: Relationality Between Mentors and Protégés Although relationship building has been sparsely researched in the mentoring literature, mentor practices that emphasize relationship and trust building (Frels & Onwuegbuzie, 2012; Wong, Wong, & Ishiyama, 2013) were found to be essential to the success of these dyads. Elucidating the tight connection between mentoring and relationality, one South Asian American female protégé stated, “You have to really trust somebody to be able to have them help, to have them guide you.” The protégés valued the solid relational bonds they shared with their mentors, to the extent that they reported that their mentors’ relational skills were just as important to them as their mentors’ research capabilities, as seen in the words of one protégé who felt rebuffed by an advisor who was competent in research, but not in interpersonal relations: I remember one time I was just sitting in front of his desk, and I said, “I was wondering if we could talk about, if you could help me sort out some stuff related to my career goals,” and he seemed uncomfortable, and he was fidgeting around and turning on his computer and looking around and very little eye contact, and basically, I didn’t feel heard. I didn’t feel listened to. I felt like he was a good teacher, he was a good

MENTORING ETHNIC MINORITY DOCTORAL STUDENTS researcher, but there was no sense of support. . . . I really struggled just to connect with him, and I had a lot of anger toward him. (Korean American male protégé)


This protégé felt so disenfranchised that he was placed on remediation. Fortunately, another professor became his mentor and the close bond he formed with her revitalized his engagement with his program, so much so that he was nominated for being an outstanding graduate student. Despite their racial differences and his initial mistrust, his new mentor, a European American woman, earned his trust by establishing a genuine personal connection with him: I didn’t trust her at first . . . there was kind of a testing period . . . where we talked about things . . . about issues related to race. I think one of the topics we talked about was food. . . . She talked more about her family . . . somehow that made me feel a little bit more comfortable that she was close with some of her relatives who were of East Asian descent. She really wanted to embrace multiculturalism and diversity, and I felt like she was on my side, and I felt more comfortable with her, and . . . I was able to open up more. (Korean American male protégé)

Other protégés also attested to the vital importance of the bond between them and their mentors. They reported that their mentors established and maintained trust through the following behaviors and gestures: (a) being open to talking about race and culture (Chan, 2008; Sewell, 2007; Thomas, 2001), (b) being willing to listen and validate the protégés’ life experiences (Barcus & Crowley, 2012; Rorrer, 2009), (c) having a holistic understanding of the protégés’ multiple identities (Chandler et al., 2011), (d) maintaining good communication practices (Forehand, 2008), (e) selfdisclosing, (f) using appropriate humor, (g) acknowledging limitations and mistakes (Barcus & Crowley, 2012), (h) giving small gifts to facilitate the protégés’ careers, and (i) behaving with integrity and staying true to their words (see Table 1).

Theme 3: Significance of Contexts Context was found to be an important consideration, not only in the lives of the protégés, but in the lives of the mentors, and the mentoring relationships as well (Chandler et al., 2011; Schlosser et al., 2011). One protégé went so far as to say that mentoring would be “meaningless” without attention to context: Protégé:

I would define a mentor as somebody who will help you both personally and professionally, and the reason I put the “personally” in there is because oftentimes people try to help you out professionally but they forget that you are a person and that you are within context, you are within a family, and you are within all of those things.

Interviewer: I’d like to hear from you what it means to have the cultural piece addressed. Protégé:

It means everything . . . the idea that you need to take somebody in context and family and as a culture and as an individual. . . . So if you take one of those levels out, you do not get the person. They will not make sense, or you may

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simplify them. If you get the cultural piece, you get the layer. You get that middle contextual layer about a person that shapes how they think, how they dream, how they work. . . . So to understand what it means for me to work in my community. . . . For a mentor not to understand that, then it’s meaningless. (South Asian American female protégé) Four layers of contexts surrounding the relationships were identified: (a) family and community, (b) the university, (c) the field and profession of psychology, and (d) society and culture. Family and community. The salience of contexts in people’s lives has been explored by vocational psychologists who have advocated for career interventions and research to be inclusive of clients’ cultural and personal contexts (Byars-Winston & Fouad, 2006; Cook, Heppner, & O’Brien, 2005; Flores & Ali, 2004; Flores & Obasi, 2005). However, this idea of attending to the different contexts of the protégé’s life goes against the grain of traditional conceptions of mentoring, which tend to situate the protégé narrowly within the realm of the workplace, school, or profession. Instead of subscribing to this restricted view of their protégés, the participants in this study discussed a more holistic conceptualization of mentoring that included their familial and community contexts: That’s been the key piece where we’re not just talking about work when we meet, it’s personal, you know, family is important to me, and her family is in her life, and we have different approaches to our family, but they’re both very present in our lives, and so we can share that, and I think when I feel that somebody knows what I’m dealing with in my life, both academic and clinical work, I feel understood because what’s been hard for me is that keeping up with my family responsibilities has, in a lot of ways, slowed me down and I needed somebody to know that that was a big piece and I couldn’t avoid that . . . . She would try to encourage me to not get weighed down by things, but she got it, and I’m not sure other people would have wanted to hear all of that. For me, that was really important. (Mexican American female protégé)

The mentors took the time to discuss or even meet their protégés’ significant others and families, thereby gaining an understanding of the familial and community ties that were integral to their protégés’ identities. Instead of separating “personal” from “work” concerns, they included family and community contexts as part of their mentoring approach, as can be seen in one mentor’s special accommodation of her protégé’s family for her defense: Since your family is coming for the hearing, we’ll do a slightly different plan for the defense. You’ll present, we’ll ask questions/ make comments, and then the family and you will be asked to leave the room while the committee deliberates. We will invite everyone back into the room and congratulate you officially. . . . I will not meet with you at that point to go over the changes. . . . You and I will meet the following day [alone]. (E-mail from an African American female mentor to her Mexican American female protégé)

The mentors themselves also revealed different contexts of their lives beyond their academic roles. It was striking that they shared parts of their lives that were out of the professional domain: Interviewer: In what ways is it an advantage that . . . you knew personal things about her?


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Protégé:

Well, it was an advantage because it helped me see her in a multidimensional context. She was not just Professor [name of mentor], Dr. [name of mentor]. She was [name of mentor] who has a mother, father, siblings, boyfriend . . . during the time I knew her, she got married, she had a baby. . . . I became multidimensional to her too, and she became multidimensional to me, and I think it just helped us appreciate the complexity of our personalities and how we do work and things like that more. (South Asian American female protégé)

In sum, rather than focusing exclusively on “professional” or “academic” concerns, the mentors and their protégés included and even welcomed discussions of personal, family, and community contextual concerns into their relationships, thereby respecting the relevance of the multiple life contexts that both sides brought into the relationship. University. The dyads were also found to be embedded in the university context that contained the subcontexts of the dyads’ academic programs, departments, and schools (Koro-Ljungberg & Hayes, 2006). Each context had a specific academic culture with written and unwritten rules that, at times, stymied the protégés’ academic progress. The protégés reported numerous challenges stemming from the university context, ranging from difficulties with academic requirements to conflicts with faculty, as seen in the following two quotes: In our department, it’s always weird because I do not have a master’s degree so sometimes I’m behind. I have to petition a lot of things to speed up my process and then I think she [her mentor] really stands up for me in the committee. (Asian American female protégé) If you say the wrong thing, they’ll [the faculty] try to make your life very difficult in the program. They’ll try to give you a B⫹ instead of an A. They will avoid you and just make things uncomfortable and people can be very petty. (Korean American male protégé)

The mentors coached and helped their protégés negotiate these challenges and when needed, acted as mediators between their protégés and the university context. The following quotes demonstrate how the mentors actively guided and intervened when issues arose from the university context: Immediately pre-defense, there was a bit of political infighting regarding our department and the type of qualitative research, it was not at all about me/my work, but happened at a time when I was about to defend, which was upsetting . . . [her mentor], as well as my other committee members consistently supported me, my study, all of which helped me to have a successful defense. (African American female protégé, e-mail to first author) [With] the graduate students, or the ones out in the career, doing a lot of conflict resolution because they run into road blocks with people type of road blocks and institutional road blocks and sitting down and figuring out, “Okay, now what’s in the way?” (African American male mentor)

Another way the mentors addressed the university context was to demystify the unwritten procedures of the academic world, as can be seen in the following mentoring session:

Doing research, it’s very slow . . . in all these studies . . . you’ll see the data when the manuscript was first submitted and then the date that it’s published . . . and that data is probably from 2 or 3 years before that when they first submitted the first manuscript, and then it’s about a 2 year process before it gets into print. (African American female mentor talking to her African American female protégé)

Field and profession of psychology. The field of psychology was another context that was part of the backdrop for the participants. Some protégés reported initial bewilderment about this context: I didn’t know a lot about all of these different areas of psychology. Nobody had gone over them with me. . . . I didn’t know that there was developmental or applied psychology. I didn’t know there was health psychology. I felt like, God, everybody knows what they’re doing but I do not. And I do not even know how to get the guidance to know. (Biracial South Asian/European American female protégé)

The mentors in this study helped their protégés understand and navigate the vast and complex field of psychology. After meeting her mentor (who taught her about the field and introduced her to colleagues at an annual convention of the APA, the protégé in the quote above had a transformed view of herself and her place in the field: I liked the people [at APA]. They were talking about their struggles . . . and I thought, “Oh, my God, there are a whole bunch of people that are like [me] . . . I’m not alone.” . . . Just going to APA and meeting people and finding other people that were more like me, really helped. And getting involved in smaller organizations. (Biracial South Asian/European American female protégé)

Mentors played an indispensable role in informing and guiding the protégés through the world and profession of psychology (see Table 1), most notably educating them about the merits of active participation in professional organizations (Delgado-Romero, Forrest, & Lau, 2012). Particularly significant was how they customized their advice to include ethnic minority concerns: I try to show to my students that some of the work that I’ve done, service work for organizations like the Asian American Psychological Association and Division 45, a lot of times they’re time consuming. . . . A mainstream academic scholar may say, “Do not do those kinds of service as a graduate student or a junior faculty because they’re time consuming. It’s taking time away from being productive in your research,” and of course, I would caution students to not overcommit themselves . . . but I think at the same time, those kinds of service work when done within reasonable limits can open doors and I think are helpful. (Japanese American female mentor)

One European American mentor openly acknowledged her limitations as a nonminority individual, and encouraged her protégé to seek additional mentorship through ethnic minority professional organizations (Delgado-Romero et al., 2012). Society and culture. Another context that affected the dyads was that of the larger society with its attendant sociocultural, political, and historical forces, such as racism, sexism, and discrimination. Although mentoring is often perceived as a workbased relationship cocooned from sociopolitical forces (Kochan & Pascarelli, 2003), the participants reported that the sociocultural context was pertinent in their relationships:

MENTORING ETHNIC MINORITY DOCTORAL STUDENTS I think the role of ethnicity, culture, gender have been very significant. . . . We talk about the impact of race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation on their lives in the institutional system that we happen to be in . . . . So this is always a conversation topic whenever [name of protégé] dropped by . . . the racist institution and the homophobic institutions and the sexism against women in the academia and all that stuff. She talked about that stuff all the time. (African American female mentor)


The relevance of the sociocultural context can also be seen in the words of several protégés who noted how their cultural experiences had provided both the catalyst and the motivation for their doctoral studies in psychology: To the question why I decided to pursue a doctoral degree in counseling psychology . . . it definitely had to do certainly with my own cross-cultural background where having gone through the adjustment process and also realizing that there isn’t really a lot of resource out there for ethnic minorities or immigrants, especially the Asian immigrant population, so that really sparked my interest in pursuing the degree. (Chinese/Taiwanese American female protégé)

Sociocultural impacts were also experienced in the form of acculturative stress experienced by protégés pursing their doctorates in programs and cities where they were a visible minority. As one Chinese American female protégé disclosed, “To go to the Midwest and to really experience what it’s like to be a minority . . . there’s definitely a culture shock and it still is.” Several mentors and protégés discussed the need for mentor knowledge and support around sociocultural issues of acculturative stress and culturally related coping: Part of it is . . . what I perceive as a cultural sensitivity . . . realizing that some of my students of color or first generation students . . . that you just do not come to a new place and . . . set up shop and go on as if the context doesn’t matter and so I’m very aware of social support and community issues. . . . I try to give them awareness of challenges they might be up against as people of color. (Biracial Asian/European American male mentor)

As seen in the earlier quotes, the participants noted the salience of sociocultural forces in their dyads and lives, rather than describing themselves and their mentoring relationships as existing in a work vacuum untouched by larger structures and forces of society, culture, history, and politics. Mentors also noted how they addressed these forces in their mentoring (see Table 1).

Theme 4: Interconnections Across Contexts The different contextual levels discussed earlier were found to overlap, connect, and influence one other. This theme of connection and overlap is oftentimes overlooked in the mentoring literature because the mentoring dyad has traditionally been viewed primarily in terms of work and career (Kochan & Pascarelli, 2003). Our findings reveal that the interconnectedness between contexts was often seen as positive, such as when one protégé explained in a mentoring session how her religious and community ties intertwined with her dissertation: I decided to get really back to the faith, and it really did influence a lot of what I do. . . . That’s what I feel about when it comes to this study. It’s this pull. I want to be able to give back to . . . my religious

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community . . . and say, “Okay, this is how we are.” . . . I want to give homage to my own religion. (Black Cuban female protégé)

In other instances, overlapping contexts influenced the protégés’ careers in negative and painful ways, as when societal discrimination clashed with professional aspirations: There was nothing on her record that would have interfered with her being placed and matched, and she didn’t get matched [for an internship]. So it was the first experience that she personally ever had to deal with the kind of racial bias that exists in the [city] mental health world. . . . She was just devastated. (African American female mentor)

The mentors recognized and addressed the interconnections between the different contexts as an essential part of mentoring: Even though the overall goal is basically to mentor them in terms of a profession, I think that in order to really do that effectively, that it’s critical to know the whole person . . . when we talk, it’s not just about the work but it’s also about their lives and the goals they have . . . like the student who is pregnant now—that was really something that she talked about a lot in terms of the thing that she wanted to have happen . . . even though she’s not finished with her program, she felt that this was something that she really wanted to do then and so I support that. . . . I joke about it that I carry my students through the other parts of their lives as well. (Japanese American female mentor)

One mentor discussed “racial socialization” when racism impinged on her protégés’ lives: With some of the other mentees, I’ve had to sort of share, especially when they have disappointments that I feel are racially based, then I do what I consider to be “racial socialization” with a number who didn’t get that kind of socialization at home because of their family orientation toward it. (African American female mentor)

A European American mentor noted the vital importance of being able to respond sensitively to the overlap across the personal and sociocultural contexts of her ethnic minority students: Part of what would make me trustworthy would be . . . my students tell me a lot of very painful things that have happened to them—racial bias—and I think that those sometimes are very painful for White people to hear and I do not blow them off or . . . despite my own discomfort and guilt . . . do not try to change the subject or anything. I will listen to them and be very honest about my feelings about that and clearly agree that it sucks, rather than becoming defensive about that. (European American female mentor)

The interconnections and overlap of personal, professional, and sociocultural contexts were not reported to be a distraction to academic concerns. Rather, these overlapping contexts were deemed by both mentors and protégés to enhance scholarly efforts. Eight participants explicitly stated that their discussions of race and culture complemented and even inspired research endeavors. One protégé felt it was edifying to witness her mentor grappling with the overlapping contexts of the personal, departmental, and sociocultural: Her being the only Asian female faculty in the department, having to fight through the power struggle not just within the department but also the university, and also just being able to be a really good professor, being really good researcher, but also a great person and really nice and friendly, very warm, very supportive person and also

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CHAN, YEH, AND KRUMBOLTZ being able to balance family and professional career. (Chinese Taiwanese American female protégé)


Theme 5: Multidirectionality of Interactions Between Contexts A fifth major theme that emerged from the data was the multidirectionality of interactions between contexts. This theme is significant because mentoring is often assumed to flow unidirectionally from mentor to protégé. In contrast, participants in this study reported a dynamic interplay between different contexts (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Chandler et al., 2011) and that mentoring was a reciprocal process. This was especially evident in the mentors’ thoughts about how mentoring benefits them: “It’s not like I do not get anything out of mentoring, especially in terms of career productivity because if you have good mentees who are productive, they help your career as well” (Japanese American female mentor). Another mentor noted how his thinking has been influenced by his protégés: “One of the rewards is that I get to work with some great students that help me think about my own ideas more clearly” (biracial Asian/European American male mentor). Mentoring also enhanced the quality of the job for one mentor: “I get a lot out of it . . . It’s the best part of my job.” (Taiwanese American female mentor) Yet another mentor disclosed the tangible benefits he has received as a result of being a mentor: “I’m a consultant now and about 30% of my work comes from people who knew me at one time as a mentor . . . so it’s come back to me tenfold” (African American male mentor). Multidirectionality was also observed in the protégés’ contributions to their mentors. Research assistance, of course, was one common way many protégés helped their mentors. But the protégés also reported other unexpected contributions as well. One South Asian female protégé noted that she could teach her older male mentor “stuff about young people and about women and independent women who want to be independent.” Two protégés surprisingly mentioned that they shored up their mentors’ selfesteem: “There’s a few things that she doesn’t feel that confident about and so I try to encourage her in areas that she may not feel that positive about” (identity of protégé withheld to protect confidentiality). Another South Asian female protégé described the multidirectionality of movements between her mentoring dyad and her family context. The family context was brought into the mentoring dyad in discussions with her mentor: “She [her mentor] would ask me about my life, like ‘How’s your family?’” On the other hand, the family context engaged with the mentoring dyad: When I had to choose between taking an academic position and taking a postdoc position, I didn’t know what to do . . . I would talk to my parents . . . and he [her father] goes, you should ask [name of mentor]. So I asked her.

The dynamic, multidirectional nature of the contexts was also seen in the participants’ comments about the benefits of mentoring radiating outward to their families, communities, the field and profession of psychology, and society at large. One South Asian/ European American biracial female protégé espoused, “Seeing the field and ethnic minorities progress in the field and make an impact. I think we both have that shared dream that we want to see

that happen and that we’re going to do that.” Another mentor expressed her vision for mentoring to ripple outward: It’s helping to develop new leaders and new academics in an area of multicultural psychology and counseling that continues to need to be nurtured and flourished and I think the benefits are bringing to the profession new minds and new thinking. (Mexican American female mentor)

Model of Multicultural Mentoring We continually generated and refined our hypotheses until we discerned an overarching theory that connected the relationships between and across analytic categories (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). The model of multicultural mentoring that emerged encompasses the mentor functions identified (see Table 1) as well as all five themes (see Figure 1). To depict the significance of contexts (Theme 3), we used concentric circles to show the contexts of family and community, university, field and profession of psychology, and society and culture surrounding the mentor and protégé. We emphasized the contextual nature of the participants’ lives via our representation of both the mentor and the protégé as situated within these multiple contexts (Theme 3). Because these contexts are interconnected (Theme 4), we used dotted lines to represent possible overlap between contexts. The dashed arrows within the circles represent the multidirectionality of the ecological interactions between contexts (Theme 5). The importance of relationality (Theme 2) between the mentor and protégé is showcased via the bottom gray arrow connecting the circles; this arrow is two-headed to symbolize the reciprocal relationship (Theme 5) within the dyad. A distinctive feature of our model is our contextual depiction of the mentor and protégé in conjunction with mentoring dimensions and functions. This is a key feature because mentoring functions cannot be divorced from context (Themes 1 through 5). We used three block arrows to denote the main mentor functions identified in our data: providing individual career and personal support tailored for ethnic minorities (Theme 1), relationship and trust building (Theme 2), and providing institutional/sociocultural support (Themes 3 through 5). These mentor functions are inextricably linked to context and can simultaneously influence as well as be influenced by each other. Hence, unlike most mentoring models that delineate mentor functions in a table format (Benishek et al., 2004; Fassinger, 1997), we deemed it necessary to depict mentor functions as integrated into our contextual model to showcase the dynamic and ecological interplay between contexts and mentor functions.

Discussion The five themes identified in our data combined synergistically to provide a nuanced and holistic understanding of mentoring as an ecological, multicultural, and relational process that provides comprehensive professional, personal, institutional, and sociocultural support. Our model builds on previous theoretical models that depict the mentor and protégé primarily in terms of the working dyad (Benishek et al., 2004; Fassinger, 1997). This study extends previous literature with our findings of mentoring as a complex ecological phenomenon involving multiple levels spanning the individual, family, community, university, field and profession of psychology, society, and culture. Thus, our model adds to, chal-



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Figure 1. Multicultural, ecological, and relational model of mentoring. The concentric circles illustrate the multiple contexts surrounding the mentor and protégé. The dotted lines of the concentric circles represent the interconnectedness of the contexts. The dashed arrows within the circles depict the dynamic ecological and multidirectional interactions of the contexts. The bottom gray arrow connecting the two sets of concentric circles represents the reciprocal relationship between mentor and protégé. The block arrows between the two sets of concentric circles outline the dimensions and functions of mentoring.

lenges, and expands on typical conceptualizations of mentoring as a process focused mainly on academic and career development. Moreover, our model enlarges the notion of the individual “self” with the inclusion of the multiple, overlapping contexts in a person’s life. Unlike Fassinger’s (1997) and Benishek et al.’s (2004) mentoring models that posit the “self” as a separate entity informed by culture, our model depicts the “self” in mentoring as the “self in context.” Furthermore, our notion of the “self in context” pertains both to the mentor and to the protégé. Our model also makes a contribution in its ecological perspective of mentoring. Previous models of mentoring have overlooked the ecological forces around the mentoring dyad or have simply noted the dynamics between mentor and protégé (Benishek et al., 2004; Fassinger, 1997). Our model is innovative with its conceptualization of mentors and protégés as dynamic beings that simultaneously shape and are shaped by their surrounding environs (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Chandler et al., 2011). The term ecological is also fitting in describing the intricate and interactional web of relationships between the different contexts, such as the exchanges between the sociocultural and the personal, or the personal with the professional. Mentoring as an ecological activity can likewise be seen in the effects of mentoring radiating outward from the dyads, as we see in the mentors’ hopes that their mentoring efforts would benefit not only their protégés, but would help advance psychology and multiculturalism. Our model is aligned with Benishek et al.’s (2004) model in our conceptualization of multiculturalism as an inherent part of mentoring as opposed to Fassinger’s (1997) model which views multiculturalism as a separate process. An example in our study was the mentors’ inclusion of ethnic minority consideration in the career advice they dispensed. Our findings extend Benishek et al.’s and Fassinger’s foci on the protégé as a multicultural being and posit multiculturalism as a series of social and cultural contexts affecting the mentor, protégé, and the mentoring relationship. The importance of relationship building has been overlooked in the mentoring literature (Rix & Gold, 2000) but was a key finding

in our study. In this, we are aligned with Benishek et al. (2004) and Fassinger (1997) in highlighting relationality as a critical function of mentoring. Our research adds to the understanding of relationality in mentoring with our emphasis on the importance of trust building, particularly in cross-racial dyads. Several mentor practices, such as gift-giving and self-disclosure, were reported to facilitate trust and caring in these relationships, but may have constituted boundary violations in other types of relationships. It is striking that although a few of the participants mentioned that the boundary lines were stretched in their mentoring relationships, none of the participants expressed discomfort with such practices. Several mentors were also careful to point out that they were aware of boundary lines. Finally, an important contribution from our study is the showcasing of specific mentor practices that constitute mentoring (see Table 1). Previous models of mentoring (Benishek et al., 1994; Fassinger, 1997; Kram, 1985) provided a general framework for conceptualizing mentor functions but did not detail how these functions were executed. We extend this theoretical understanding of multicultural mentoring to offer a practical view of the concrete practices, activities, and strategies that mentors engage in. This latter contribution begins to offer a “how to” guide that seeks to demystify and demonstrate the process of multicultural mentoring. Two major limitations of our study were the small sample of mentors and protégés and the lack of male participants in our study. Hence, given our nonrepresentative sample, our findings may not be generalizable to all mentoring relationships and our results should be considered preliminary and exploratory. Because there were a limited number of male participants in our study, we could not fully discern the impact of masculinity and gender identity on mentoring. Further research on this topic of mentoring ethnic minority males is needed. The notion of “successful” mentoring is highly subjective and this study’s findings were predicated on the participants’ definitions and ideas of success in mentoring. Hence, our study was further limited because we only sampled “stellar” mentors and


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developed our conclusions based on this bias. Without the benefit of comparison groups of “bad” mentors or “average” mentors, we could not determine which characteristics of mentorship were associated with quality mentoring and which were associated with less successful mentorship. Likewise, we could not determine which aspects of our model were indispensable to successful mentoring and which could be omitted. We also did not examine other mentoring supports available to the protégés, such as other mentors or peer mentors. These adjunct mentoring supports may also influence the protégés’ perceptions of their primary mentoring relationships. Another limitation was our ability to provide only a snapshot of mentoring. This was not designed as a longitudinal study; nor could we examine specific developmental stages and changes in the mentors, protégés, and their relationships. That said, our aim was to follow grounded theory procedures in our incorporation of protégés at different developmental stages (Glaser & Strauss, 1967), and we also analyzed archival data that spanned the lengths of the mentoring relationships. We view our inclusion of protégés at different academic stages as a strength because it made it possible for us to conduct a comparative analysis of how mentor practices changed in accordance with the developmental needs of the protégés. Last, we designed our study to focus broadly on the topic of mentoring ethnic minorities and it was beyond our scope to differentiate between various racial and ethnic groups. Further research is needed to parse out the specific mentoring needs of different racial and ethnic groups, as well as implications for mentoring with regard to intersections of identities such as gender, sexual orientation, class, country of origin, and race (Chandler et al., 2011; Ramaswami, 2009).

Implications Our findings underscore both methodological as well as praxis imperatives for mentoring to be conceptualized and understood as an ecological process (Chandler et al., 2011). In particular, we found race and culture to be important factors in the dyads studied. Hence, researchers must be attentive to these variables in mentoring as well as be cognizant of their own cultural biases in interpreting data. In addition, the results from this study reinforce previous calls to study mentoring from the dual perspectives of mentor and protégé because they can be radically different (OrtizWalters & Gilson, 2005). This recommendation holds true for both qualitative and quantitative studies, and is particularly critical in research on mentoring ethnic minorities where perspectives shaped by culture and race can be substantially different. The research on mentoring in the fields of counseling and clinical psychology is sparse; hence future research could include exploring the mentoring needs of specific ethnic minority groups and of students, faculty, and practitioners at different career stages, such as early- and midcareer professionals. Our model predicts that successful mentoring of ethnic minorities occurs when mentors provide career support customized for ethnic minorities (Theme 1), attend to cross-cultural relationship matters (Theme 2), recognize the contexts of their protégés’ lives (Theme 3), are cognizant of the interconnectedness of contexts (Theme 4), and are aware of the multidirectionality of interactions between contexts (Theme 5). Drawing on these tenets, we propose that future research on this topic test hypotheses such as the following:

•

Ethnic minority protégés who receive culturally specific career advice from their mentors will report greater satisfaction with their mentors than ethnic minority protégés who receive career advice that is not culturally specific (Theme 1). • The level of trust between mentors and ethnic minority protégés is positively related to protégés’ perceptions of the quality of their mentoring relationships (Theme 2). • Ethnic minority protégés who discuss family and community concerns with their mentors are more likely to report greater satisfaction with their mentoring relationships than ethnic minority protégés who do not participate in such discussions with their mentors (Theme 3). • There will be a positive relationship between protégés’ levels of stress from the home environment and their levels of stress from the graduate school environment; this relationship will be moderated by conversations with mentors about coping with stress (Theme 4). • Mentors who collaborate in research with their protégés will experience greater perceived benefits and fewer perceived costs than nonmentors who collaborate in research with nonprotégés (Theme 5). In terms of practice, the results from our study point to the importance of mentors being multiculturally aware and competent (Gasman et al., 2008), as well as skilled in negotiating cross-racial relationships (Rorrer, 2009). For mentors in cross-cultural relationships, this often requires a respectful and humble stance in approaching cultural differences (Hook, Davis, Owen, Worthington, & Utsey, 2013), a willingness to examine one’s preconceived notions and assumptions (Park-Saltzman, Wada, & Mogami, 2012), and a commitment to expanding one’s worldviews and beliefs. Mentors need to be aware of how cultural values shape the behaviors, thoughts, beliefs, and expectations of minority group members (Kim, 2007; Park-Saltzman et al., 2012), and how these values relate to mentoring practices. Further, mentors need to be conversant with the unique personal, professional, and societal challenges confronting minorities in the workplace, such as discrimination (Lee & Ahn, 2011; Moradi & Neimeyer, 2005; Yeh et al., 2014; Yeh et al., 2007), exclusion from formal and informal networks (Brooks & Clunis, 2007; Sewell, 2007; Young & Brooks, 2008), lack of role models (Zalaquett, 2006), language and cultural barriers (Wong et al., 2013), and isolation (Gasman et al., 2008; Moradi & Neimeyer, 2005; Schlosser et al., 2011; Smith, Smith, & Markham, 2000). Mentoring minority protégés has to be tailored with these considerations in mind because career strategies that are helpful for majority protégés may not be appropriate for minority protégés (Ragins, 1997). Mentor multicultural competence also necessitates that one recognizes the limits of one’s knowledge (Barcus & Crowley, 2012) and takes the initiative to expand one’s knowledge of ethnic minority issues, needs, and resources. For instance, a key finding in this study was the importance of mentor referrals to ethnic minority professional organizations for adjunct mentoring support (Davidson & Foster-Johnson, 2001; Delgado-Romero et al., 2012; Young & Brooks, 2008). Although the focus of this study was not on the training of mentors, our findings strongly suggest that mentors and educators be trained in working effectively with the specific needs of culturally different protégés (Thomas, 2001; Young & Brooks, 2008). We recommend that mentors adopt an



attitude of deep caring and interest in learning about ethnic minority protégés, be vigilant in questioning and understanding how race and culture affect professional aspirations, and be proactive in guiding protégés through obstacles or challenges that might directly or indirectly stem from cultural or racial forces. The findings from this study constitute a theoretical and practical contribution to traditional models of the dyadic relationship by highlighting the importance of contexts that extend beyond the dyad. In particular, two of our key findings—trust in cross-racial relationships and the contextual complexity of an individual’s life— have implications for multicultural training and education. Anyone involved in a diverse working alliance (e.g., a teacher– student, advisor–advisee, supervisor–supervisee, or counselor– client relationship) should have as a foremost concern an attentiveness to interpersonal (mis)trust, historical mistrust (Bell & Tracey, 2006), and the contextual layers of each individual’s life. Learning about trust and contexts beyond the dyadic relationship should be essential components of multicultural training, and educators can help students grapple with difficult questions such as, “How much does this individual trust me?”; “How can I establish trust?”; and “What types of historic events inform this individual’s level of trust?” The current research aligns with previous research findings in outlining the critical function of mentors in the training and development of counseling and clinical psychologists: Mentors in this study were found to be vitally important and influential in nurturing and facilitating multiple aspects of their protégés’ professional development, from teaching, research, clinical work, publishing, editing, applying for jobs, to building a network, contributing to professional organizations, and actualizing their professional aspirations and identities. As evidenced by the protégés’ direct reports, the comprehensive professional support provided by their mentors was a major factor in their satisfaction, perseverance, and productivity in their research and clinical work. Hence, given the key roles mentors play in the career development of psychologists, it would be a wise practice for counseling and clinical psychology departments to assess, evaluate, and reward mentoring competence in faculty advisors as well as clinical supervisors (Girves, Zepeda, & Gwathmey, 2005; Johnson & Zlotnik, 2005; Kim, 2007). Support for mentoring could be demonstrated in concrete ways such as including mentoring as a criterion in faculty hiring (Johnson & Zlotnik, 2005), preparing and training faculty to be effective mentors (Allen, Lentz, & Day, 2006; Johnson, 2003), assessing mentoring competence (Johnson & Zlotnik, 2005), rewarding faculty for mentoring (Girves et al., 2005), and recognizing exemplary mentoring. Whether mentoring efforts are publicly acknowledged or not, mentors are indispensable, not only to the future of counseling and clinical psychologists, but to the future of psychology as well (Forehand, 2008). The comments of the participants in this study show that mentoring is a key to the continued growth and regeneration of psychology because mentoring efforts dynamically support upcoming generations of psychologists, thus inspiring and supporting innovative research and clinical practice ideas. Hence, it behooves professional organizations, such as Division 12, Division 17, and the American Psychological Association, to be consistent and active in recognizing, supporting, promoting, and validating mentoring efforts at all levels.

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Appendix Interview Protocols for Mentors and Protégés Interview Protocol for Mentors 1. Tell me a little about your background, for example, your ethnic/cultural background, where you grew up, and how you decided to pursue an academic career. 2. How did you learn to be a mentor? Can you tell me the story about you and the influential people in your life? 3. How many ongoing mentoring relationships do you have right now? What stage of their careers are they at? How many people would you say you have mentored so far? 4. How would you define the term mentor? What are some activities and practices you associate with mentoring? 5. How do your mentoring relationships begin? How do you select your protégés? 6. What are your goals when mentoring someone at the predissertation stage? At the dissertation and job search stage? At the pre-internship stage? How do you achieve these goals?

7. Please give me a picture of all the specific things you do when you are mentoring someone from the beginning of their programs to their job search. 8. What are the ways in which you keep in touch with your protégés? E-mail? Phone? Face-to-face? How often do you communicate with them? Who initiates contact usually? 9. How do you help your protégés in their academic and professional development? 10. How do you address personal issues (such as self-esteem and family issues)? 11. What is the role of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation in your mentoring? Are there some specific things you do as an ethnic minority mentor that a nonethnic minority mentor might not do? Can you describe a time when your race/culture/gender/sexual orientation was different from your protégé— how did you deal with it?

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606

In what ways do you help your protégés’ careers? Do you help them get published? Attend conferences? Present at conferences? Get scholarships? Get jobs? How do you create opportunities for your protégé? In what ways do you help your protégé attain desirable positions? Can you give me examples of how you bring your protégé’s accomplishments to the attention of important people in the field? How do you facilitate the career goals of your protégé? (Or help them design goals?)

12.

What are the most effective or important mentoring techniques or activities you use and why? Tell me about a time these techniques worked well. A time when they did not?

13.

What types of issues are harder to deal with than others in mentoring? Can you describe a time when it was particularly difficult to mentor somebody?

14.

What are things that you do that might seem obvious, but are actually supportive of your protégés’ growth?

15.

Tell me about humor in your mentoring relationships.

16.

Tell me about gift-giving in your relationships.

17.

What are things you are careful not to do in mentoring?

18.

What are some costs of mentoring to you?

How do you help develop your protégé’s confidence, selfesteem, and resiliency? How do you provide encouragement to your protégé? How do you help your protégé understand himself or herself? How do you show trust and confidence in your protégé?

19.

What motivates you to mentor?

Question 13

20.

What do you get out of mentoring?

21.

Is there anything we didn’t discuss that you think is important to talk about?

Tell me about a time you had to confront a protégé. How do you deal with resistance from your protégés? Have you ever worked with a protégé who was underperforming? How did you deal with that situation?

Question 10

Question 14

Supplemental Questions and Prompts Question 4 What are things you do in your role as a mentor that are similar or different from the other roles that you perform (e.g., as a parent, teacher, or psychologist)?

What types of social interactions do you have with your protégé? What types of personal information do you share with your protégé? Tell me about any problems you have experienced with boundaries.

Question 18

Question 5

What are some costs of mentoring to you? (e.g., damaged reputation, use of time and resources, being upstaged or exploited, feeling embarrassed or disappointed, accused of playing favorites).

How do you get to know your protégé? How do you establish trust with your protégé?

Question 7

Question 20

What do you provide that you wish you had at different stages of your academic career? Imagine you are mentoring one of your protégés. What might be happening in a typical mentoring session? In what ways do you protect your protégé? What are the most important things you find your protégés need to become aware of and deal with in the department and in the field? In what ways do you coach your protégé? How do you teach them about desirable professional behaviors? In what ways might you provide support (such as financial or emotional support) to your protégé?

Do you get a sense of satisfaction? Recognition and respect for mentoring efforts? Generativity? Renewed enthusiasm and rejuvenation for the job? Gaining knowledge on current trends and issues? Productivity? Support and loyalty from protégé? Crosscultural sensitivity, skills, and knowledge? Giving back to the community? Sense of social justice? Friendship or collegiality?

Interview Protocol for Protégés 1.

Tell me about your cultural/racial background and how you decided to pursue a doctorate in psychology. What stage of your career are you at?

(Appendix continues)


2.


3.

How would you define a mentor? What are some activities and practices you associate with mentoring? In your opinion, what are some differences between an advisor and a mentor? Who are your mentors, past or present? Tell me about them.

4.

Tell me about how he or she became your mentor.

5.

Can you tell me the special aspects of your relationship that characterize it as a MENTORING relationship? What does he or she give you that other people in your life cannot give you?

6.

7.

What are qualities about your mentor or things he or she does that makes the relationship a success? What in your opinion makes a good mentor? What types of things did you discuss as ground rules for the relationship? What were the goals for your relationship?

8.

How often do you communicate with him/her? In what ways do you communicate (phone, e-mail, face-to-face)? Who initiates contact usually? How responsive is he or she?

9.

How much time does your mentor spend with you? How does he or she convey that it is okay for you to approach her/him?

10.

11.

How much do you trust your mentor? How did he or she create that trust in you? How has he or she helped in your academic and professional development?

12.

How does he or she demonstrate that he or she cares about you?

13.

How does he or she demonstrate confidence in you?

14.

What specific things does your mentor do to encourage or support you?

15.

How does your mentor act as a role model for you?

16.

Can you give me one example of something your mentor did that really made a difference in your life?

17.

How does your mentor influence your beliefs about yourself?

18.

Tell me about collaboration in your relationship.

19.

In what ways are you different from your mentor (culture, gender, class, background, sexual orientation)? How do these differences affect your relationship? How were these differences addressed in your relationship? In what ways were you able to identify or not identify with her/him?

607

20.

How has she/he supported you as an ethnic minority person, personally and professionally?

21.

What personal information have you shared with each other?

22.

How does she/he handle the power differential in your relationship?

23.

Tell me about humor in the relationship.

24.

Tell me about gift-giving in your relationship.

25.

In what ways might you benefit your mentor?

26.

What drawbacks are there to being in a mentoring relationship?

27.

How would you sum up the benefits you get from mentoring?

28.

Which qualities do you possess or things you do that make the relationship a success?

29.

What would you change about your relationship? What else could he or she do that could improve the relationship even further?

30.

How long will you stay in touch with him/her?

31.

Is there anything we didn’t discuss that you think is important to talk about?

Supplemental Questions Academic and Professional Development What information has he or she given you about the department, about completing the degree, and about the field of counseling/ clinical psychology? In what ways has your mentor opened your eyes to new ideas? New opportunities? New people? What did you not know that your mentor taught you? What advice has he or she given you? How does he or she protect you? In what ways does he or she coach you? How has your mentor helped with publishing? With attending conferences? With presenting at conferences? With getting scholarships and other financial help? With getting jobs? With introducing you to people who might be helpful in your career? With teaching? With letters of recommendation?

Social and Personal Areas What types of social interactions do you have with him/her? Received November 6, 2014 Revision received March 15, 2015 Accepted March 16, 2015 䡲

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