What Are the Long Term Effects of Peer Mentoring in College Dissertation

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Peer Mentoring in Higher EducationNcube, Shaikh, Ames, McMorris and Bebko (2019) point out that at the higher education level, there are few programs provided by universities that allow students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to benefit from extra-curricular options. Ncube et al. (2019) sought to examine whether an autism mentoring program (AMP) could help ASD students in college have a better social support system. The researchers had 23 students who enrolled the AMP fill out a questionnaire, and from the responses the researchers saw that the students reported a high degree of satisfaction with the program. However, the researchers also used standardized measures to see if the participants actually had any increase in their social support system on campus. The problem that the researchers encountered was that even though the participants in the AMP expressed satisfaction with the program the program itself did not actually yield any significant or measurable results in terms of improving the social support system of participants.Thus, what Ncube et al. (2019) found was that the mentor program for ASD students helped those students feel socially engaged so long as they were enrolled in the program but once the program was over the students were not any better situated to develop their social support system. This finding indicates that ASD students in college need more than just peer mentoring; they may need social support systems to be maintained for them, which is likely one reason the participants expressed interest in returning to the program. They wanted to have something in their lives that allowed them to regularly interact with another person, even if it was just with a mentor. This shows that ASD students in college desire and need a social life, but the issue is how to enable them to have one once the mentor program has ended. If the mentor program only provides a temporary solution without lasting impact, can it really be said to be an effective solution at all?However, the study by Siew, Mazzucchelli, Rooney and Girdler (2017) shows that peer mentoring can help enrollees improve their communication skills of ASD students and reduce their apprehension about communicating in public. Communication apprehension was the biggest factor impacted by peer mentoring for this group. The researchers arrived at this finding by conducting pre-test and post-test interviews with the participants. Yet, the researchers did not show via a longitudinal analysis whether there were any lasting effects from the peer mentoring program for the ASD students. Instead, it simply highlighted the main area of benefit for the enrollees—a decrease in nervousness about being a student with ASD at college and having to communicate.When compared to the study by Ncube et al. (2019), the study by Siew et al. (2017) shows that there is no question about the positive effects of peer mentoring for ASD students.

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Indeed, numerous studies have already shown this to be the case. What is needed is an answer to the question posited by Ncube et al. (2019) of whether there is a way to leverage the peer mentoring program into having a more positive, long-term impact for ASD students than that which is currently possible. The earlier study by Siew et al. (2017) does not tackle this question but takes only a short term, somewhat myopic view of the matter, celebrating the positive impact in terms of…

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…on mentees, it looks at what motivates mentors to take part in these programs. Thus, instead of verifying and validating the data regarding the positive effect of peer mentoring on student lives, it accepts short-term findings at face value and goes on to examine the unique characteristics that make up the personalities of those who volunteer to be peer mentors. The aim of the study by Griffin et al. (2016) is thus to better understand the peer mentor persona.Griffin et al. (2016) used a mixed methods approach with 17 peer mentors and thus obtained both qualitative and quantitative data on the subject. The main motivations for these peer mentors were found to be the desire to express their personal values in action and the desire to increase their own sense of knowledge and understanding; lesser motivations were related to the desire to gain career-related experience. The main themes that the researchers identified in their research were that peer mentors were motivated by a sense of friendship, personal growth, community involvement, having experiences with people who had disabilities, and to get started on what would eventually be a career field for them. The study is helpful in understanding what motivates a peer mentor, but it does nothing to answer the questions that later researchers such as Ncube et al. (2019) and Shah et al. (2019) would have regarding the long-term utility or effect of peer mentoring on students.In conclusion these five studies highlight different aspects of the peer mentoring process and outcomes. What they all tend to show is that peer mentoring has a positive effect on students at least in the short-term. What none of them show is how a….....

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