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Protégés’ Personality Traits, Expectations, the Quality of the Mentoring Relationship and Adjustment: A Big Five Analysis

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Abstract

Background

Community-based mentoring interventions can benefit high-risk youth. However, meta-analyses suggest that these benefits may be conditioned by protégés’ personality.

Objectives

Associations between protégés’ personality traits and mentoring expectations, the quality of the mentoring relationship, the perceived mentoring contribution, and levels of adjustment at the end of mentoring were explored using the Big Five model. In addition, the possible moderation of protégés’ personality traits on the relationship between the quality of the mentoring relationship and protégés’ level of adjustment at the end of the intervention and the perceived benefits of mentoring was explored.

Methods

Self-reports from protégés, parents, and teachers were used in a prospective research design. The sample consisted of 167 protégés (mean age = 9.58) from Perach, the largest community-based mentoring program in Israel.

Results

Protégés’ agreeableness, extraversion, and openness were positively associated with their expectations. Agreeableness was positively associated with the quality of the relationship. Agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness were positively associated with protégés’ social and academic adjustment at the end of mentoring, and with the perceived contribution of mentoring, whereas neuroticism and extraversion were negatively associated. Protégés’ personality traits moderated the correlations between the quality of the relationship and their conduct self-concept, as well as the parents’ perceived mentoring contribution.

Conclusion

This study highlights the contribution of protégés’ personality in shaping their ability to benefit from mentoring in terms of adjustment and perceived contribution of mentoring.

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Acknowledgments

This study was partially supported by the Israeli Association for Social Science and Education: Grant No. 28 for Ph.D. students.

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  1. Graduate School of Creative Art Therapies, Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences, University of Haifa, 199 Aba Khoushy 199 Ave., Mount Carmel, 3498839, Haifa, Israel

    Limor Goldner

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Goldner, L. Protégés’ Personality Traits, Expectations, the Quality of the Mentoring Relationship and Adjustment: A Big Five Analysis. Child Youth Care Forum 45, 85–105 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-015-9319-9

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