Attachment to the mentor at the center of a chain reaction

This study aimed to deepen the understanding of the causes and consequences of mentor attachment in faculty-student mentoring relationships by answering the questions of “why and under what conditions mentor attachment may develop” (Robertson & Zhang, 2024) and of “how it intervenes in mentoring’s contributions to student persistence and success”. The first hypothesis was that mentors who demonstrate interest in the academic, professional, and personal aspects of their students are more likely to embody the caring, expert support figure that students need (Mouhib, 2018). Because this figure has similarities to an attachment figure to turn to in times of difficulty (Soucy & Larose, 2000), the second hypothesis was that mentors who embody a caring, expert support figure may encourage mentees to develop an attachment to them, i.e. one that is low on the avoidance and anxiety dimensions. As suggested by Le et al. (2021), the third hypothesis was that mentor attachment may play a role in the contribution of mentoring to student well-being. Since the latter’s effects on success and persistence are well documented (e.g., Bücker et al., 2018), the fourth and fifth hypotheses were that the contribution of mentoring to well-being would be a determinant of its contributions to student persistence and success. This being the case, the two final hypotheses were that each dimension of 3D mentoring could activate a chain reaction that contributes to mentoring benefiting student persistence and success, within which the caring, expert support figure, mentor attachment and well-being would be successive mediators.
Results support the hypotheses, except for the role of attachment anxiety.

本研究旨在通过解答“导师依恋在师生辅导关系中的成因及后果”这一问题，以及“其在辅导对学生坚持与成功贡献中的干预作用”这一疑问（Robertson & Zhang, 2024），进而深化对导师依恋在师生辅导关系中的理解。首项假设提出，对学生的学术、职业及个人方面表现出兴趣的导师更有可能成为学生所需之关爱、专业支持者（Mouhib, 2018）。鉴于该角色与困难时刻可依赖的依恋对象具有相似性（Soucy & Larose, 2000），第二项假设认为，具备关爱、专业支持者形象的导师可能促使被辅导者对其产生依恋，即一种在回避和焦虑维度上较低的依恋。如Le等人（2021）所建议，第三项假设提出，导师依恋可能在辅导对学生福祉的贡献中扮演一定角色。鉴于后者的成功与坚持影响已得到充分研究（例如，Bücker等人，2018），第四和第五项假设提出，辅导对福祉的贡献将是其对学生坚持与成功贡献的决定因素。在此前提下，最后两项假设认为，3D辅导的每一个维度都能激发一系列连锁反应，从而促进辅导对学生坚持与成功的益处，其中关爱、专业支持者、导师依恋及福祉将依次成为中介因素。研究结果支持了上述假设，但未发现依恋焦虑的作用。