AbstractsPsychology

Scant research exists on mentoring programs and the factors which lead to the development of positive mentoring relationships (Blechman, 1992). In this study, training, supervision, and mentor characteristics were examined as predictors of positive mentoring relationships with aggressive children. The participants were mentor-mentee dyads. Mentors were college students from Texas A&M University. Mentees were second and third grade children who were nominated by their teachers as aggressive. Despite using fairly liberal strategies to identify mentor characteristics that would predict positive mentoring relationships, few significant findings emerged consistently. In this select sample, it appeared that training and supervision were more powerful predictors than individual characteristics of the mentors. The clinical and research implications of these finding are discussed.