Conflict and quality in the mentoring relationship: the role of mentor attachment

Abstract

Aggression in childhood has been linked to concurrent maladaptive socioemotional functioning (Kazdin, 1993; Loeber, 1990) and future social incompetence, academic failure, substance abuse, mental health problems, and criminality (Coie, Lochman, Terry & Hyman, 1992; Loeber, 1990; Stattin & Magnusson, 1989). This has led researchers and interventionists to focus their attention on early childhood aggression in an effort to understand its development and then intervene with these aggressive youths. Childhood aggression has been linked with both the avoidant and disorganized attachment styles (Lyons-Ruth, 1996; Greenberg, Speltz, DeKlyen & Endriga, 1993; Barnett & Vondra, 1999). This finding has spurred interventions, such as mentoring, that have an emphasis on the affective quality of these children's relationships (Cavell & Hughes, in press). From an attachment framework, the goal of the mentoring relationship is to challenge and perhaps change the child's self, others, and relationship models. The present study examined the role mentor's attachment plays in shaping the mentoring relationship. The relationship variables examined were conflict and quality. We predicted that mentor attachment would moderate the relationship between the child's aggression and the amount of conflict in the relationship. Secondly, we predicted that the level of conflict would moderate the relationship between mentor attachment and the quality of the mentoring relationship. Both mentors' and mentees' ratings of relationship conflict and quality were used in this study. Results indicated that mentor attachment does play a role in the quality of the mentoring attachment. Specific results and implications are discussed.