Date of Award

4-2014

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Educational Leadership, Research and Technology

First Advisor

Dr. Dave Louis

Second Advisor

Dr. Walter L. Burt

Third Advisor

Dr. Glinda J. Rawls

Keywords

African American women, mentoring, personal success, professional success, job satisfaction, A A College students

Abstract

Studies show that mentoring is generally beneficial for individuals and groups across various disciplines and categories of diversity (Ali, 2007; Carr, 1996; Hill, 2004). While a vast amount of literature identifies the impact of mentoring and its relationship to different variables such as age, race, gender, social economic status, and academic program, studies examining the impact of mentoring on African American women are lacking (Harris-Perry, 2011; Jones-DeWeever, 2009; Smith, 2000). This study was a retrospective investigation of the impact of mentoring on the self-perceived personal and professional success of African American women who graduated from public four-year post-secondary institution (N = 185). Participants completed an online version of the study’s instrumentation, the Mentoring Experiences as Undergraduate Students Survey, which was developed based on the work of Dr. Jeffrey Carr (1996) and Dr. Rita Ali (2007). The results of a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) showed that there were no statistically significant differences between mentored and non-mentored participants regarding their perceived personal and professional success. The result of a Pearson correlation was statistically significant, showing a positive relationship between personal and professional success. This study also examined the association between mentor traits, mentor functions, and personal and professional success. A linear regression analysis established mentoring traits as the only statistically significant predictor of personal success. A second regression analysis showed that neither mentor traits nor mentor functions were statistically significant predictors of professional success. This and other implications of the study’s findings are discussed, along with the study’s limitations and recommendations for future research.

Access Setting

Dissertation-Campus Only

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