Generativity development among college students who mentor: a sequential multimethod quantitative study
International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education
ISSN: 2046-6854
Article publication date: 23 March 2023
Issue publication date: 2 May 2023
Abstract
Purpose
Generativity, defined as care for the next generation, is a hallmark of developmental theory (Erikson, 1950). Mentoring is an antecedent to generativity (Doerwald et al., 2021), with college students who mentor demonstrating higher generativity than their peers (Hastings et al., 2015). Yet no research has studied generativity development longitudinally among college students who mentor. This paper aims to discuss the aforementioned issue.
Design/methodology/approach
Using MANCOVA analyses, Study 1 (N = 91) cross-sectionally examined the influence of years spent mentoring on generativity levels among college students who mentor in the USA. Study 2 (N = 44) employed growth curve analyses (GCA) in multilevel modeling (MLM) to analyze longitudinal changes in generativity over three timepoints, each one year apart, while accounting for the influence of gender.
Findings
Although the results of the MANCOVA analyses in Study 1 were nonsignificant, Study 2 revealed a significant and positive increase in generative behavior. Specifically, generative behavior (e.g. teaching a skill or serving as a role model; McAdams and de St. Aubin, 1992) increased by 3.26 points, indicating that participants may have moved, for example, from performing a generative behavior never during the past two months to performing it more than once.
Originality/value
The current study advances the fields of college student development and mentoring by arguing for the utilization of mentoring interventions among college students to increase generativity and calling for changes to generativity measurement among collegiate populations.
Keywords
Citation
Sunderman, H.M. and Hastings, L.J. (2023), "Generativity development among college students who mentor: a sequential multimethod quantitative study", International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education, Vol. 12 No. 2, pp. 145-161. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMCE-07-2022-0055
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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