2019/01/01 by Robin Gaines Lanzi, Alison P. Footman, Alison Footman +2
Medicine · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Diversity and Career in Medicine #Health and Medical Research Impacts #Mentoring and Academic Development
paper · doi:10.1037/ort0000366
crossref issued 2019/01/01 · crossref published 2019/01/01 · crossref published-online 2019/01/01 · openalex publication_date 2019/01/01 · crossref created 2019/05/09 · crossref deposited 2024/02/05 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref indexed 2026/07/29 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Effective mentoring of underrepresented scholars in the biobehavioral and health sciences is vital for the future of scientific inquiry, as well as for clinical and public health applications. Through the mentoring process, both the mentee and mentor can benefit by broadening their knowledge, skills, and perspectives relative to the professional goals and interests of the mentee. Establishing a trusting and nurturing relationship allows the mentor and mentee to identify short- and long-term goals, accompanied by strategies designed to maximize the mentee's success. Many relationships benefit from establishing explicit working guidelines early on, with recognition that flexibility may be necessary as the relationship matures. Adapting to the specific needs and challenges facing underrepresented doctoral trainees and early career scholars, we propose an integrative developmental framework informed by 3 fundamental assumptions: (a) the mentee's professional growth and personal development are intertwined; (b) the mentee's goals will evolve and sometimes change over time; and (c) reflective analysis of the distinctive skill sets, life experiences, and limits of the mentor and mentee will help strengthen the mentoring plan. A challenging issue in mentoring is how to individualize the approach for each mentee, recognizing the need to balance mentor support and advice with opportunities for mentee independence, self-appraisal, and creativity. We share our developmental framework with the hope that others may adapt this as a practical template to develop a joint plan amenable to intermittent monitoring to optimize productivity and personally rewarding professional career trajectories for an increasingly diverse workforce. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).