Mentoring relationships as an aspect of career development, adult socialization, and adult development within the legal profession

This exploratory study focuses on mentoring relationships as an aspect of adult socialization and development. To gain an understanding of how and when mentoring impacts the lives of young adult professionals, five hypotheses are tested. The first two hypotheses explore mentoring with regard to its impact on life satisfaction and career attainment. The remaining hypotheses examine gender and mentoring with regard to differentials in amount, type and impact of mentoring.; Contrary to expectation, mentors are not found to play the key role in the success of a young professional's career. Only one hypothesis is supported, namely that men will be more likely than women to have mentors who practice the same profession within the same organization, and that women will be more likely than men to have had mentors who practice the same profession in a different organization or do not practice the profession.; Data were collected on a stratified random sample of 115 attorneys practicing in New York City. Information was gathered by mail questionnaire from 69 women and 46 men. Both structured and open-ended questions were included.; Levinson's (1978) definition of a full mentoring relationship was utilized, incorporating both psychosocial aspects of the occupational world as well as the personal world of the respondents. A critical question about a sponsor asks "What part did the person play in advancing the protege's career?" whereas the analogous question (examined in detail in this study) about a mentor is "What part did the person play in the mentee's life?" Further, attention is given to an examination of mentoring which does not work out, or, the downside of mentoring.; Mentoring is most often presented in a highly positive light. By removing some of the halo around mentoring, a more balanced and accurate perspective begins to emerge.; It is suggested that the results of many studies on mentoring follow a cultural theme, in that mentoring is defined by many mentored as well as nonmentored respondents as crucial in getting ahead. Respondents may believe that mentoring was critical to their success, but results of this study indicate that many other factors play an integral part.