A review of hundreds of evaluations recently indicated that most mentoring programs show low effects and unacceptably high rates of mentor attrition (Raposa, 2021). This is because, despite our best intentions, the dominant “friendship” approach to mentoring relies on relatively untrained and lightly supervised mentors.
The focus of most tech platforms tends to be on making the matches, rather than strengthening and sustaining them–as if matching is the only goal.
Mentoring is most effective when mentors are trained to deliver supportive-accountability and, in addition to building a friendship, the relationship focuses on resolving specific goals and challenges.
Research reported on this website was supported by the National Institutes of Mental Health under award number 5R41MH126795.
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