Previous research suggests that little is known about female
mentoring relationships, particularly among undergraduate students.
The purpose of the present study was to investigate mentoring
relationships experienced by female undergraduate merchandising
management students. The investigation included the overall
prevalence of mentoring experiences, the specific kinds of mentor
roles, the prevalent sources of mentoring, and the relationship
between class standing and the overall prevalence of mentoring.
Survey methodology was used. The sample included females
enrolled in the merchandising management program at a western
university (n=102). Their ages ranged from 18 to 38 years with a
mean and mode age of 21 years.
The Student Experiences Questionnaire used for the present
study included three sections: (1) the Professional Socialization
Scale (PSS) developed by Stenberg (1988) to identify and measure
the prevalence of mentoring and specific mentoring roles; (2) a
parallel scale designed by the researcher to identify the sources of
mentoring; and (3) demographic and exploratory items in order to
provide direction for further studies.
Statistics used to analyze the data included percentages,
means, factor analysis, and ANOVA. The study included five
objectives with four hypotheses.
It was hypothesized there would be a low level (2.00) of
overall mentoring. Contrary to this hypothesis, the mean for overall
prevalence was higher than predicted.
It was hypothesized that informal and least powerful mentor
roles would be the most experienced. A factor analysis was
performed on the matrix of intercorrelations among the items on the
PSS. It was not possible to test Hypothesis 2 because the factor
analysis did not generate mentor roles that could be described
according to influence or power. It was only possible to identify
factors according to the specific helping actions that took place.
The relationship between class standing and overall prevalence
of mentoring was tested. Results showed no differences among
freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors.
There was no formal hypothesis formed regarding mentoring
sources. Friends were the mentoring source with the highest
frequency. Employers were the second most frequent mentoring
source followed by professors, and advisors.
The most important findings of the study were: the absence of
specific mentor roles previously identified in the literature and
friends and employers as the most frequent source of mentoring.
Specific helping behaviors were identified from a factor analysis of
items on the PSS that loaded highest on the factor analysis. Friends
and employers were identified as the most frequent sources of
mentoring. / Graduation date: 1992
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/36723 |
| Date | 06 June 1991 |
| Creators | Durand, Elizabeth Victoria |
| Contributors | Francis, Sally K. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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