The Impact of Mentoring on the Success of Community College Students

This study examines the influence of a conceptually valid mentoring experience on community college students' persistence decisions. Participants were selected from a random sample of core courses offered in the fall of 2006 at a community college in the south-central area of the United States (n = 320). Results of the structural equation modeling analysis indicate that mentoring significantly predicted the degree to which students became socially and academically integrated. Mentoring was also found to indirectly influence students' intent to persist, as mediated by their commitment to earning a college degree.