Developmental mentoring, relationship quality and school adjustment: the Chapel Buddy programme

Abstract

This prospective mixed methods longitudinal study examined the connection between mentor–mentee relationship quality and school adjustment amongst students participating in the Chapel Buddy programme, a developmental mentoring programme. Thirty-one sixth graders were paired with 29 kindergarteners for the duration of the school year. Sixth-grade reports of relationship quality had a significant main effect on predicting the self-reported school adjustment of the kindergarten students at the end of the year. Additionally, regression analyses indicated that relationship satisfaction of the sixth-grader students predicted teacher-reported academic adjustment of the sixth graders. Qualitative analyses of parents' perspectives of the Chapel Buddy programme indicated parents believed the programme eased the transition to school. This study concludes that developmental mentoring has a positive influence on school adjustment, specifically school connectedness, for mentors as well as the mentees, and such a programme can be successful for fostering adjustment to elementary and middle school.

Keywords:

• developmental mentoring
• relationship quality
• school adjustment
• transition to school
• kindergarten
• middle school

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the kindergarten and sixth-grade students and their teachers who participated in the project. A special thanks to the Elon College Fellows programme and Office of Undergraduate Research at Elon University for funding the research.