Fairy Godmothers and Guardian Angels: A Qualitative Study of the Gay Mentorship Relationship

Abstract

We conducted a qualitative study to explore the benefits of one gay male community resource, gay mentorship, particularly regarding sexual identity development. Findings indicate that gay mentorship is most involved in gay identity integration, and aided in supporting gay identity development, connecting men to gay-related resources, helping men to feel part of a gay community, improving management of gay-related stressors and role-modeling a positive gay identity. We found that gay mentorship was not associated with gay identity formation. Our research does suggest that gay mentorship fosters psychosocial benefits in gay men, and should therefore be fully explored in future studies.

KEYWORDS:

• mentorship
• qualitative
• sexual identity development
• gay males

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This study was funded, in part, with the generous support from the UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program block grant and the UCSF Summer Dean's fellowship. The authors would also like to acknowledge the generous participation of the subjects of this study for their time and the staff and faculty of the UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program.

Notes

1. The sexual identity development processes used to guide these results were based upon the model developed by Rosario and colleagues (Erikson, 1950, 1968; Rosario et al., 2011; Rosario et al., 2006).

2. A sugar daddy most often referred to an extended relationship with an older man who provided material support but was not concerned with the development of the participant.