THE MENTORING RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MAJOR ADVISORS AND DOCTORAL DEGREE ADVISEES

The existence of mentoring relationships between major advisors and their doctoral degree advisees was the intent of this study. To determine the existence of mentoring in this relationship, three dependent variables were used (trust, befriending, and personal attributes) with six independent variables (gender, age, academic college, length of the relationship, enrollment status, and assigned or chosen). The Advisor-Advisee Questionnaire was the survey instrument used, designed for this study as the method to collect data. The questionnaire was distributed to an adjusted sample of 333 doctoral advisors or advisees (present and recent past) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. A total of 241 responses (72 percent) were received. The statistical processes used were multivariate analyses of variance (manovas) on the dependent variables (trust, befriending, and personal attributes) and the independent variables (gender, age, academic college, length of relationship, enrollment status, and assigned-chosen). The results were: (1) Two-thirds of all the respondents (major advisors and all advisees) were experiencing or had experienced a mentoring relationship in their doctoral program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. (2) The respondents from the College of Agriculture were found to be significantly higher on befriending than the respondents of the Colleges of Business Administration, and Engineering and Technology. (3) The respondents between 45 to 69 years of age were significantly higher in the area of befriending than those aged 20 to 44 years. (4) Advisees that chose their major advisor (79 percent) were significantly higher on befriending than assigned advisees. (5) Full-time advisees (57 percent) were significantly higher on trust than were the part-time advisees. (6) Graduates were found to be significantly higher on trust than were the candidates. (7) Female graduates were significantly higher on trust and personal attributes than the male graduates. (8) The length of the relationship was not found to have a significant difference on trust, befriending, and personal attributes