Getting Started with Program Evaluation: Chapter 3

Measuring Relationship Quality

Measuring relationship quality offers your program a chance to get valuable feedback from participants.

Key concepts we’ll explore in this chapter:

  • Assessing mentoring relationships
  • Finding reliable measures for relationship quality
  • Considering the Impact of Relationship Quality

    Like many mentoring programs, Super Scholars’ program model relies on mentees building positive relationships with mentors. If something is negatively affecting the quality of the mentoring relationships in your program, it could affect the success of your program outcomes.

    Take a moment to read about Super Scholars’ experience with selecting and using research-based relationship quality measures.

    Reading 3: Are Our Mentors and Mentees Developing Positive Relationships?

  • Assessing Mentoring Relationships
    mentor and menteeNakkula and Harris1 propose the following framework for measuring the quality of mentoring relationships:

    Internal match quality: How do the mentor and mentee feel about their relationship and each other?

    • Relational aspects (perceptions of compatibility, feelings of closeness, trust, satisfaction)
    • Instrumental aspects (degree-of-growth orientation, frequency of support received)

    Match structure: How do the mentor and mentee decide what to do and what types of activities to engage in?

    External match quality: How do elements outside of the mentoring relationship (e.g., perceived program support, degree of family engagement in the match) affect relationship development?

    1 Nakkula, M., & Harris, J. (2014). Assessing mentoring relationships. In D. Dubois & M. Karcher (Eds.), Handbook of youth mentoring (2nd ed., pp. 45-62). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

  • finding instruments to measure relationship quality

    The National Mentoring Resource Center offers a detailed online Measurement Guidance Toolkit, which is designed to help programs select reliable, valid tools for assessing the quality of the mentoring relationships they are cultivating.

    Measurement Guidance Toolkit screen
    In the toolkit, there is a section dedicated to mentoring relationship measures. These measures are organized into three categories:

    Multidimensional measures: These measures are designed to provide insight into multiple aspects of relationship quality (from the earlier mentioned framework).

    Uni-dimensional measures: These measures assess one dimension of relationship quality — in most cases, using only one scale. These measures are useful if you have already chosen a specific or narrow focus.

    Measures of specific Facets of relationships: These measures are oriented toward assessing aspects of mentoring relationships that, although likely to be relevant to many programs, are not routinely captured by more general-purpose measures. These aspects include:

    • Youth-centeredness
    • Mentor cultural sensitivity
    • Growth focus
    • Group mentoring process
  • selecting a measurement tool for your program

    When selecting a measurement tool for your program, consider the following:

    • When in doubt (or if it’s your first time asking participants these questions), use a multifaceted measurement tool, if it seems relevant.
    • You may want to specifically examine issues related to mentors’ cultural responsiveness.
    • If you are a group program, research suggests group cohesion (how the youth in the group are getting along with one another ) is critical, as it can influence certain outcomes as much as mentees’ relationships with mentors.
    • If you are a community-based program, you may also want to focus on mentor-family relationships. If mentors and families are not interacting well, it can predict early match closure.

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Chapter 2

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Chapter 4

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