Mentoring as a key to professional development and academic satisfaction of graduate students in selected social and behavioral sciences

This study was designed to assess gender differences in Master's and Doctoral level students' perceptions of their mentoring relationships and academic satisfaction within their graduate programs in selected social and behavioral sciences at Texas A&M University. A major purpose of this research was to assess and describe the current status of mentoring relationships among a select population of graduate students within the College of Education and the College of Liberal Arts at Texas A&M University.;More specifically, gender differences within the context of mentoring were studied. Variables studied included relative difficulty of securing a primary mentoring relationship, the various types of mentoring relationships relied upon for support, and the use of peers as a mentoring resource. Mentoring dyads were also explored in terms of specific mentoring functions provided within the dyads. Academic satisfaction was also examined as a function of current status of mentoring relationship. Perceived quality of various sources of mentoring relationships was also explored within the context of academic satisfaction.;Participants were asked to respond to a demographic questionnaire, which incorporated questions regarding the Partial-Role Mentoring Model (Shapiro, et al., 1978) and peer support. Participants were also asked to respond to the Provisions of Social Relations Scale--Revised (PSR--R), an adapted version of Weiss' (1974) PSR scale; the Mentoring Functions Scale (Noe, 1988b); and the Academic Satisfaction Questionnaire (ASQ), an adapted version of the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire--Short-form (Vocational Psychology Research, 1977).;Findings did not support the hypothesis that female graduate students have more difficulty securing a primary mentor than do their male peers. Results of this survey also indicated that several individuals fulfill a mentoring role in the lives of graduate students, including peers.;Findings also indicated no statistically significant gender differences among mentoring functions provided to the graduate students in this sample regardless of gender of the mentor. As expected, however, the more positively graduate students rated their mentors on mentoring functions provided, the more satisfied these students indicated they were in their academic programs. These results point to the benefits as well as the importance of having a primary mentor while in graduate school.