Building Friendship through a cross-cultural mentoring program

No Thumbnail Available
File version
Author(s)
Woods, Peter
Poropat, Arthur
Barker, Michelle
Hills, Ruth
Hibbins, Ray
Borbasi, Sally
Griffith University Author(s)
Primary Supervisor
Other Supervisors
Editor(s)
Date
2013
Size
File type(s)
Location
License
Abstract

This paper examines the efficacy of a short-term mentoring program in building cross-cultural friendships between students at an Australian university. Using a quasi-experimental approach, our study found that the mentoring program (Local Aussie Mentoring Program-LAMP) increased cross-cultural interactions for mentees, but not for mentors. About 45% of both mentors and mentees wished to continue their relationship with mentoring partners after the completion of the mentoring requirements. Mentees spent significantly more time with cross-ethnic friends than did controls after the completion of LAMP. We examined whether multicultural aspects of personality, as measured by the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ), would positively correlate with cross-cultural mentoring effectiveness and cross-cultural friendship interactions (the dependent variables). Multicultural personality aspects of mentors (as measured by the MPQ) had significant positive relationships with both mentee and mentor-rated mentoring measures. All mentor MPQ scales showed some significant but small and positive relationships, with mentor friendship items, particularly Open-mindedness, Cultural Empathy and Emotional Stability. We found a significant, positive relationship between mentee Cultural Empathy and Social Initiative with cross-cultural friendship. These results show some partial support for a positive relationship between MPQ scales and cross-ethnic friendships.

Journal Title

International Journal of Intercultural Relations

Conference Title
Book Title
Edition
Volume

37

Issue

5

Thesis Type
Degree Program
School
Publisher link
Patent number
Funder(s)
Grant identifier(s)
Rights Statement
Rights Statement
Item Access Status
Note
Access the data
Related item(s)
Subject

Sociology

Other human society not elsewhere classified

Strategy, management and organisational behaviour

Development studies

Cultural studies

Persistent link to this record
Citation
Collections