Mentoring in Clinical Psychology Programs: Broadening and Deepening

Mentoring has received much attention in the research and training literature for several years and has been increasingly described as important in the teaching and training enterprise. Questions about the definition of mentoring, where it does and does not take place, its association with different psychology training models, and the growing diversity of graduate students who may have different mentoring needs than previous cohorts, have all been addressed in the literature and inform this study. This exploratory research adds to the understanding of mentoring by gathering data from current more culturally diverse mentees from scientist-practitioner and practitioner-scholar training programs in psychology. A survey was sent to graduate programs, and responses from 290 participants were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Mentors were highly valued by mentees, even though they defined and described mentors in a variety of ways. There was little to no difference depending on one's training model, and several respondents discussed the needs of culturally diverse students. Mentees often mentioned 2 broad categories as critical to mentoring: pragmatic support, such as help managing graduate school and finding jobs, and emotional support. Overall, aspects of the relationship competency seemed to be the foundation for all mentoring activities for many of the participants.