Mentoring and locus of control of African American and European American doctoral students in a midwestern public research university

This descriptive study used quantitative and qualitative methods to compare mentoring relationships and locus of control of U.S. born African American and European American doctoral students at a Midwestern, public, research university. The study also sought to determine students' preferences for mentoring based upon their mentors' race, gender, and age, and the students' perceptions of their mentors' personal and professional attitudes and values, and the students' own mentoring relationships.A questionnaire was mailed to 200 doctoral students, the entire population of 76 African American doctoral students, and 124 stratified and randomly selected European American doctoral students. A return rate of 79% was achieved, from 84 European Americans and 73 African American doctoral students, n = 157. In-depth, structured interviews were then conducted with 24 respondents from the sample to examine further experiences of mentored and nonmentored, male and female, African American and European American respondents.Positive associations were found between students with graduate assistantships and mentored status, particularly in research. European American students scored higher than African American students on Levenson's LASS Internal and External Locus of Control scales. Female students scored higher on Internality and lower on Externality scales than male students in the study. European American male students were significantly more responsive to perceived presence of Powerful Others than other students, a finding which seemed to be inconsistent with previous findings. The disparity may be attributed to: (a) the multidimensionality of the scale, (b) the uniqueness of the doctoral experience, and (c) the possibility that European American students actually viewed their mentors and advisers as Powerful Others.African American students identified race as the central trait preferred in their mentoring relationships. African American, female students and students in the field of education identified their mentors' perceived racial and gender sensitivity as vital mentors' traits. Large numbers of female and African American students in the sample were from the field of Education. Students of both races scored similarly on their perceptions of the importance of (nurturing) values in their mentoring relationships; however, female students tended to value those qualities significantly more than other groups in the sample.U of I OnlyETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permissio