Mentorship quality and mentors’ work-to-family positive spillover: the mediating role of personal skill development and the moderating role of core self-evaluation

Abstract

This research examined the influence of mentorship quality on work-to-family positive spillover (WFPS) of mentors by focusing on the mediating role of personal skill development and the moderating role of core self-evaluations (CSEs). The findings based on a survey study of 187 formal Chinese mentors indicated that the positive linkage between mentorship quality and WFPS is mediated by personal skill development. In addition, the influences of mentorship quality on personal skill development is stronger for mentors whose CSE is high rather than low. These results evidence that a formal mentoring program has positive impacts on the family life of mentors in an Eastern setting.

Keywords:

• Core self-evaluations
• mentoring
• mentorship quality
• personal skill development
• work–family positive spillover

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank Fang Lee Cooke and three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments throughout the review process.

Notes

1 For a K-item scale, Cronbach’s alpha = $\frac{K}{K-1}\left(1-\frac{{\sum }_{i=1}^K{\sigma }_{Y_i}^2}{{\sigma }_X^2}\right).$

2 D = −2 [(log likelihood for baseline model) − (log likelihood for interaction model)].

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Peak Discipline Construction Project of Education at East China Normal University and by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Number 71672108).