Examining commitment, satisfaction, equity and relational maintenance in formal youth mentoring relationships

Formal youth mentoring programs such as Big Brothers Big Sisters of America are an increasingly popular intervention used to address a variety of challenges encountered by at-risk youth. The formation of an enduring relationship between a mentor and mentee has been associated with a range of academic, psychosocial, and behavioral benefits for youth. However, some youth involved in mentoring relationships that end prematurely can experience negative outcomes. Utilizing a social exchange perspective, this study surveyed 145 mentors from four different mentoring programs to understand how mentoring relationships develop and persist by examining commitment, satisfaction, equity, and relational maintenance. Overall, results confirmed the hypotheses derived from the Investment Model, but the degree to which satisfaction, alternatives, and investments predicted commitment in mentoring relationships differed somewhat from patterns found in other relational contexts. Next, mentors in equitable relationships reported higher levels of satisfaction and commitment than mentors who reported being underbenefitted in their relationships with mentees. However, equity did not predict reported use of relational maintenance strategies as a whole. Commitment predicted use of maintenance strategy subscales, with the exception of social networks. Furthermore, the set of Investment Model variables (i.e., satisfaction, investments, quality of alternatives) predicted all seven relational maintenance strategy subscales. The discussion highlights both theoretical and practical implications of the current, as well as continued, study of mentoring dyads