Assessing undergraduate mentoring competency in a research-intensive Hispanic serving institution: A revalidation

Area of Science:

• STEM Education
• Psychometrics
• Mentorship Studies

Background:

• Mentorship is crucial for persistence and professional identity in STEM, especially for underrepresented minority (URM) students.
• Existing tools like the Mentoring Competency Assessment (MCA-21) face challenges in diverse settings due to validation on homogeneous samples and reliance on traditional psychometrics.
• There is a need for culturally relevant and psychometrically sound assessments of mentor effectiveness in diverse institutional contexts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the factor structure of the MCA-21 using Exploratory Graph Analysis (EGA) in the unique context of a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI).
• To develop a psychometrically rigorous and context-specific assessment of mentoring competencies relevant to diverse student populations.

Main Methods:

• Utilized Exploratory Graph Analysis (EGA), a network-based approach, to analyze data from 323 research mentors at an HSI.
• Assessed the latent structure of mentoring competencies without imposing rigid model assumptions.

Main Results:

• EGA revealed a more parsimonious three-factor structure for mentoring competencies, differing from the original six-factor model.
• The identified factors were (1) Research Skill Development, (2) Identity and Belonging, and (3) Career Alignment.
• The three-factor structure demonstrated strong psychometric properties (CLI=0.951) for the HSI context.

Conclusions:

• Mentoring competency structures are context-dependent and may integrate culturally responsive practices.
• The refined three-factor MCA-21 offers a validated, less burdensome instrument for evaluating mentor effectiveness in HSIs.
• This improved assessment can enhance mentor training and foster equitable professional development for URM students in STEM.