When many people think about mentoring, one of the first images that comes to mind is a picture of a happy mentoring pair, content and thriving because of the relationship each individual has with the other. The images that we conjure up usually have common themes: the youth comes from a troubled background or lacks stability in his or her life, and the adult is established and knows where he or she is going in life, setting a good example for the mentee. But one thing that may not be immediately apparent is the diversity in the relationship. How do individual differences affect the quality or content of a mentor-mentee match? Does it matter if the mentor is white and from a middle-class background and the mentee is a Hispanic youth whose family recently immigrated to the United States? If the mentor and mentee are both labeled as “black” by the casual observer but one is African American and the other is first generation Ethiopian American?
Dr. Bernadette Sanchez, an associate professor of Psychology at DePaul University, studies these questions in detail. In a recent lecture, she emphasized the importance of considering the background of each individual in a mentoring relationship. Her research fills an important gap in our understanding of the effects of individual differences between mentor and mentee.
Dr. Sanchez began her talk about individual differences by setting up a hypothetical situation. Picture a relationship between a while, middle-class mentor, Ellen, and a Hispanic recent immigrant, Louisa. Ellen asks Louisa where she is thinking about going to college, and Louisa answers with a list of local colleges. Ellen suggests that Louisa should go somewhere away from home so she can establish independence. Louisa says she thinks her parents would not her do this and does not think it’s possible. What might be the repercussions for the mentoring relationship?
Clearly Ellen is well-intentioned. But what if Louisa takes these ideas back home and her family becomes angry at the suggestion? Louisa’s parents could refuse to let Louisa continue to meet with Ellen. An unfortunate termination of a positive connection can be caused by simple cultural misunderstanding.
Researchers are just beginning to outline the questions that they have for this new area of research and how they want to answer them.
The research we have has revealed some very interesting, if inconsistent, findings. Intuition tells us that mentoring matches between individuals from the same racial/ethnic background should be most successful. After all, most naturally occurring mentor-protégé pairs are found in a young person’s community where they are surrounded by people form similar backgrounds. But it isn’t always the case that these types of relationships are most successful in a formal mentoring program. There are some important things to consider about race and ethnicity in these situations:
- Differences within “cultures.” For example, while both Puerto Ricans and Mexicans are considered to be “Latino,” the two groups come from different places and have very different backgrounds. In Chicago, for instance, there is a long-standing rivalry between Mexicans and Puerto Ricans.
- “Differences within racial groups.” For example, both Ethiopian-heritage black families and African-American black families are considered “black,” but both have very different backgrounds and do not necessarily share common viewpoints based on their “race.”
In her work research individual differences, Dr. Sanchez specialized in working with Latino youth. One study that she conducted asked whether there was a difference between familial and non-familial mentoring relationships. Two things emerged from this study:
- Non-familial mentors had more education than familial mentors
- Youth with non-familial mentors tended to have higher educational aspirations and expectations
Thus, while youth may be able to relate on a more personal level to someone with a similar cultural background, there can be other benefits to gain from individuals from a dissimilar background.
It is still too early to draw any solid conclusions about race and ethnicity in mentoring relationships. However, in dealing with culturally and racially diverse youth, there are a number of important things that adults should keep in mind:
- Stereotype threat. If the youth in a mentoring relationships is from a minority community and the mentor has stereotyped ideas about issues relating to that group, those stereotypes are more likely to occur. (For more information on stereotype threat, see articles and work by Claude Steele.)
- Cultural mistrust. Young people that have cultural mistrust will tend to think that members from their own cultural group are better role models than those from other cultures.
- The cultural sensitivity of the mentor. One study with Latina girls found that the girls felt more comfortable around adults and mentors that they identified as “culturally sensitive” than those that were not culturally sensitive.
Information for this article was taken from Darling, et. al., Gender, Ethnicity, Development and Risk: Mentoring and the Consideration of Individual Differences and Bernadette Sanchez, The Role of Race and Ethnicity in Mentoring Relationships, University of Minnesota Extension, Nov. 14, 2007.
