Development and Content Validity Testing of the Mentor Behavioral Interaction Rubric

Area of Science:

• Higher Education
• Mentoring Research
• Behavioral Science

Background:

• Current mentor training evaluations rely on subjective mentee/mentor perceptions.
• Objective assessment of mentor behavioral skills during interactions is lacking.
• There is a need for reliable tools to measure mentor effectiveness in higher education.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and assess the content validity of the Mentor Behavioral Interaction (MBI) Rubric.
• To create an objective measure of mentor behavioral skills during single-episode interactions.
• To provide a tool for evaluating mentor training interventions.

Main Methods:

• Developed the MBI Rubric with six quantifiable behavioral items (Part 1) and eleven content items (Part 2).
• Experts evaluated items and scoring criteria for content validity using item content validity indices (I-CVI).
• Revised rubric items based on expert feedback and content validity assessments.

Main Results:

• The MBI Rubric demonstrated strong content validity, with high I-CVI (≥0.86) and average scale CVI (S-CVI/Ave) (≥0.90) for most items.
• Specific items related to motivation and interaction content were refined based on expert recommendations.
• The MBI Rubric is the first objective measure for assessing mentor behaviors in video-recorded interactions.

Conclusions:

• The MBI Rubric is a valid and objective tool for assessing mentor behavioral skills in single interactions.
• This rubric can complement existing measures to evaluate the effectiveness of mentor training programs.
• Future research should focus on inter-rater reliability, sensitivity to change, and construct validity.