Mentoring During the College Years: A Lifelong Predictor of Life Satisfaction, Coping with Stress, and a Sense of Calling

While many experiences shape young adults during the college years, mentoring relationships may be particularly influential in producing enduring outcomes. This cross-sectional, survey-based study (N = 419 church-attending adults over age 22, approximately half of whom were pastors) investigates whether the degree of mentoring during ages 18-22 predicts four present-day outcomes: life satisfaction, coping with stress, seeking God’s will, and having a sense of calling. The hypotheses were supported for three of the outcomes—life satisfaction, coping with stress, and having a sense of calling—even after controlling for other formative factors (campus ministry involvement, local church involvement, spiritual practices such as prayer and personal Bible study, and faith sharing) and demographic variables. The relationship between mentoring and seeking God’s will was significant only for non-pastors, suggesting that mentoring may be especially important for cultivating spiritual attentiveness among laypersons. These findings underline the importance of local churches and campus ministries prioritizing mentoring relationships with college-aged young adults during this formative developmental period.