Simon Larose Laval University Annie Bernier & Nathalie Soucy University of Montreal

1. Attachment as a moderator of the effect of security in mentoring on subsequent perceptions of mentoring and relationship quality with college teachers Simon Larose Laval University Annie Bernier & Nathalie Soucy University of Montreal Journal of Social and Personal Relationships Volume 22(3), 2005, Pages 399-415

2. Purpose • To determine if attachment insecurity, among college students,moderates the effect of emotive security in mentoring upon the student-perceived outlook of a past student-mentor program and student-teacher relationship quality

3. Theory • Attachment moderates the effect of perceived security in mentoring on the outlook of past mentored-mentor and mentored-teacher relationships

4. Hypothesis • Positive mentored perceptions of mentoring and security of mentoring share a positive correlation • Insecure attachment functionally reduces prevalence of the relationships presented in theory.

5. Variables • Independent • Perceived Security in Mentoring • Attachment Insecurity • Dependent • Subsequent Perception of Mentoring • Quality of Relationship with Teachers

6. TheoreticalConstructs • Perceived Security in Mentoring (IV1): the student-perceived emotion associated with the mentor relationship • Operationally Defined: the student perception of the student-mentor interpersonal relationship (through surveya.) • Instruments of Perceived Security in Mentoring assessment: The 25-item Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA). a. Carried out at time-2 immediately following the program (T2)

7. Theoretical Constructs (cont.) • Subsequent Perception of Mentoring (DV1): the student-perceived maintenanceof the relationship and satisfaction with a mentoring program • Operationally Defined: the combined (r=.74) current student-perceived maintenance (eight items, alpha=.86) and satisfaction (eight items, alpha=.84) after five months following completion of the mentor program. • Maintenance: the persistence of program-developed interpersonal relationships • Extent • Quality • Satisfaction: the return of program-completion • Usefulness

8. Theoretical Constructs (cont.) • Perception of Relationship Quality with Teachers (DV2A and DV2B): the student-perceived ease of self-disclosureduring and of help-seeking behaviorthrough interpersonal interaction with teachers • Operationally Defined: the student perception of interpersonal student-teacher relationship interaction (through survey along five interaction characteristics) • Conflictb. • Unfairness • Comfort of personal disclosure • Intensity of informal teacher relations outside the classroom • Comfort in seeking helpb. • Instruments of Relationship Quality Perception assessment: • The Measure of Affective Relationships with College Teacher (MARCT) • The Seeking Help from Teacher subscale of the Test of Reactions and Adaptation in College (SHT/TRAC) b. Characteristics identified in final analysis of Results that were selected, through factor analysis (at Time1 and Time2), to avoid repetitive analysis and/or arbitrary scales

9. Theoretical Constructs (cont.) • Attachment (IV2): a security or an insecurity history is developmentally internalized alternating through stages of style and subsequent working models of attachment (WMA) • Operationally defined as being either • Secure (Autonomous) -or- • Insecure, consistent of: • Dismissing (avoidant) • Preoccupied (anxious-ambivalent) • Unresolved (fearful) • Instrument of WMA assessment: Adult Attachment Interview (AAI)

10. Subjects • Research Population: three Universities with each having a mentor program for academically at-risk freshmen • Common Mentor Program Goals • Voluntary participation • One-on-one student-mentor relationships • Program emphasis on the prevention of academic, social and emotional adjustment problems • Exclusion of support on specific academic matters • Students (N=102; 31 male and 71 female) • Academically at-risk (students’ high school grades were relatively poor) • French-speaking universities (25% public-urban, 42% public-rural, and 33% private-urban) • 18.1 mean age • Mentors (N=10; 5 male and 5 female) • Current teachers of the respective university • Each receiving a 3 hr. training session, collectively • 39 mean age (8.75 SD) • Experience • Teaching: 3-37 yrs. (13 mean yrs.) • Mentoring: 30-450 hrs. (150 mean hrs.)

11. Results • Correlations between Attachment (AAI scores) and Perceived Security in Mentoring (IPPA scores) • AAI dismissing aspect and IPPA scores • -.21 (p*<.05) • AAI preoccupied aspect and IPPA scores • -.22 (p*<.05) • “Weakly Associated”

12. Results (cont.) • Expectation of DV1 and DV2 anticipated among at-risk students provided through regression analyses • 6% expectation of variance among subsequent perception of mentoring[Table 1: Step 2] and perception of teachers(Conflictual relationships) [Table 2: Time 1/Step 3] was obtained by Security in mentoring (SM) • High-level SM predicts (respective of the latter): • a persistence of program-developed interpersonal relationships and a return on program-completion (after 5 mo.) • low interpersonal conflict and high comfort in seeking help (while controlling for Conflictual relationships) • Expectation of variance among subsequent perception of teachers [Table 2: Time 1/Step 3] while controlling for Supportive relationships was not obtained by SM with significance

13. Results (cont.) • Moderating of Security in mentoring effect upon perception of mentoring and relationships with teachers – by way of attachment • Significant attachment interaction with security in mentoring effect upon • Perception of mentoring (p***<.001) [preoccupied score X security in mentoring] • Perception of conflictual relationships with teachers (p**<.01) [dismissiveness score X security in mentoring] • Non-significant attachment interaction with security in mentoring effect upon • Perception of supportive relationships with teachers

14. Conclusions • Reject the Null Hypothesis • Positive mentored perceptions of mentoring and security of mentoring share a positive correlation • Correlations between Attachment (AAI scores) and Perceived Security in Mentoring (IPPA scores) were “weakly associated” • Insecure attachment functionally reduces prevalence of the relationships presented in theory. • Highly dismissive dispositions of attachment were found to increase the effect strength of perceived security in mentoring on the outlook of past mentored-mentor and mentored-teacher relationships and the moderating role of attachment

15. Conclusions • Security in mentoring was inversely related to relationship quality perception • Not significantly related to relationship quality perception – supportive • Attachment preoccupation tendency moderated security in mentoring effect upon subsequent perception of mentoring • Attachment dismissing tendency moderated security in mentoring effect upon relationship quality perception-conflictual

16. Room for Change • Less range in mentoring experience • Confound: students leaving home to attend school (42% left home to attend college) • Interaction: attachment X perceived security in mentoring • Autonomous (n=67) • Dismissing (n=28) • Preoccupied (n=7) • AAI scores were limited to Time 3 and may have changed in Time 4 (a change due to college transition) • No established construct validity: Subsequent perceptions of mentoring assessment produced by the researchers • Repeated measures design with a baseline • No Subject Control Group