Empowering Mentors: The Impact of Peer to Peer Mentoring Relationships on Mentors' Prosocial Attitudes

Last registered on April 26, 2024

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Empowering Mentors: The Impact of Peer to Peer Mentoring Relationships on Mentors' Prosocial Attitudes
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0013483
Initial registration date
April 23, 2024

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
April 26, 2024, 12:29 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Affiliation
University of Bremen

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2022-10-01
End date
2025-09-30
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial is based on or builds upon one or more prior RCTs.
Abstract
Most research on mentoring and tutoring programs has primarily concentrated on how such relationships benefit the mentees. However, there is a notable lack of studies examining the effects on the mentors themselves. This study addresses this gap by assessing the impact of a mentoring program on the social skills of the mentors. Leveraging  randomized control trial conducted in public schools in Bogota, Colombia, this research examines the outcomes of pairing university students with public school students for one year. These pairs consist of individuals from differing socio-economic backgrounds, with the public school students generally from low-income families and the mentors from middle- to high-income families. By exploring this unique setup, the study aims to determine how mentorship that facilitates intergroup contact between different socio-economic groups affects prosocial behaviors, including attitudes toward generosity and trust towards low-income people, aversion to inequality, and support for redistribution policies.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Angélica Lucia, Serrano Galvis. 2024. "Empowering Mentors: The Impact of Peer to Peer Mentoring Relationships on Mentors' Prosocial Attitudes." AEA RCT Registry. April 26. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.13483-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
“Más Allá de 11” is a one-to-one mentoring program that aims at building bridges between high school students (mentees) from disadvantaged backgrounds and university students (mentors), thereby introducing a potential role model from a different socio-economic background into the high school students’ social network. The intervention is designed to last from 9 to 12 months, during which mentors accompany students through their final year at school. Mentors and mentees are matched, taking into account career interests and gender. After the matching, the program kicks off with a first group meeting where all mentors and mentees participate, giving the pairs a chance to get to know each other in a more regulated environment but also to learn techniques to work together on the mentee’s goals. After this first meeting, mentors and mentees are incentivized to meet on a biweekly basis, which allows them to tailor the sessions to the individual needs and preferences of the mentee and guarantees a high level of flexibility. The program offers monthly subsidies to cover the costs of the meetings. The subsidies vary depending on the number of meetings registered by each pair each month. “Más Allá de 11” is implemented in three cohorts, starting in 2021 and ending in 2024, and is part of a research project analyzing its impact on mentees’ outcomes. The study was pre-registered at the AEA RCT registry on October 18, 2021 (RCT ID: AEARCTR-0004709). The impact of this mentoring program on mentors’ outcomes is measured only for cohort 2 and cohort 3 (2022-2023; 2023-2024). A subsample of mentors is randomly assigned to receive a mentee (treatment) or not (control). To recruit mentors, the program is advertised at different universities in Bogotá. Interested parties should register their contact information and field of study on an online platform. Registered mentors are invited to a training session in which the structure of the program and course of action in emergency situations are explained. Only mentors attending the training session are eligible to be randomized.
Intervention Start Date
2023-11-15
Intervention End Date
2024-12-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
-Generosity towards low-income individuals
-Inequality aversion
-Support for redistribution policies
-Beliefs about the trustworthiness of low-income individuals
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
-Generosity: share given to poor recipient in a standard dictator game.
-Inequality Aversion: indicator for choosing the more egalitarian option in a binary choice dictator game.
-Support for Redistribution Policies: Index of preferences for redistribution, following the approach in Anderson (2008). Support is measured on a 1 to 7 Likert scale from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”.
-Beliefs about the trustworthiness of the poor: estimated likelihood of return promises in a binary trust game with promises.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Perceptions of poverty rate in Colombia
Perceptions of income distribution in Colombia
Perceptions of upward and downward mobility
Fairness Views
Perceptions on the Unfairness of Inequality and the Role of Effort
Support for financial aid policies for low-income students
Risk Aversion
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Step 1: the mentoring program is advertised at universities in Bogotá. Interested mentors should register for the program, using an online survey in which the following information is asked:
1. Whether they are currently working, and if yes, in which sector
2. Their current study field and level of education
3. Number of semesters that they have been at the university studying 4. If they have already completed a degree, and when
5. The number of courses they are currently taking
6. The university where they are studying or have graduated
7. Whether they have a scholarship to finance their studies
8. Their motivation to be a mentor
9. Whether they have volunteered before in any other program
Step 2: Eligible mentors are invited to training sessions. Mentors are eligible if:
-They are less than 35 years old
-They are based in Bogotá and will be living in Bogotá for the next 12 months
Step 3: Several training sessions are offered, both online and in person.
For the first cohort of mentors (2022-2023), 18% of the mentors were trained in physical meetings, and 82% were trained in virtual meetings. For the second cohort of mentors (2023-2024), 20% of the mentors were trained in physical meetings, and 80% were trained in virtual meetings.
Step 4: Order the mentors who attended a training session by gender and type of university where they study. Remove mentors who registered but never attended a training session.
Step 5: Randomly select into treatment the number of female and male mentors needed to match with available male and female mentees.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
Individual (Mentors)
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
0
Sample size: planned number of observations
522 mentors
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
327 in treatment group
195 in control group
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials

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IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
German Association for Experimental Economic Research
IRB Approval Date
2024-04-17
IRB Approval Number
Be5kJYn7
IRB Name
Universidad de los Andes
IRB Approval Date
2022-02-24
IRB Approval Number
1498
Analysis Plan

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