Factor Analytic Support for Psychosocial and Vocational Mentoring Functions

Abstract

Eight 50-word vignettes which portrayed either psychosocial or vocational mentoring functions were presented to 144 college students who rated the desirability of each function on a scale of 1 to 7. A principal axis factor analysis with oblique rotation yielded two factors, one on which the psychosocial functions loaded more heavily (and which accounted for 33.4% of the variance) and one on which the vocational functions loaded more heavily (and which accounted for an additional 5.9% of the variance). The results may help researchers formulate different questions about mentoring than the basic questions which have guided prior work.