Profiles in cultural humility: Examining differences in openness to training and match length among volunteer mentors.

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Anderson, A. J., Simpson, S. B., & Sánchez, B. (2024). Profiles in cultural humility: Examining differences in openness to training and match length among volunteer mentors. Children and Youth Services Review, 163, 107803.

Introduction

Cultural humility is defined as the ongoing awareness, supportive interactions, and behaviors aimed at addressing social inequalities (Foronda et al., 2016). Anderson and colleagues (2024), explore how cultural humility among volunteer mentors influences their openness to training and the duration of mentoring relationships.

Methods

99 volunteer mentors who were predominantly female (65%) and White (89%), with an average age of 34 years, completed a baseline survey assessing various aspects of cultural humility, including unawareness of racial privilege, self-efficacy to provide racial/ethnic support, ethnocultural empathy, and plans for social justice action.

Mentors were followed for two-years from baseline.

Anderson and colleagues (2024) used a K-means cluster analysis to identify cultural humility profiles based on the four assessed dimensions.

Results

  1. High Cultural Humility Group: This group (n = 37) had low unawareness of racial privilege and high levels of self-efficacy to provide racial/ethnic support, ethnocultural empathy, and plans for social justice action.
  2. Emerging Cultural Humility Group: This group (n = 32) had low unawareness of racial privilege but showed relatively lower self-efficacy, ethnocultural empathy, and average plans for social justice action.
  3. Low Cultural Humility Group: This group (n = 30) exhibited higher unawareness of racial privilege, higher self-efficacy to provide racial/ethnic support, but average levels of ethnocultural empathy and lower commitment to social justice action.

Key findings included:

  • The High Cultural Humility group had more prior training experiences and placed higher value on future training than the Low Cultural Humility group.
  • The Low Cultural Humility group had significantly shorter match lengths, indicating more frequent early terminations of mentoring relationships compared to the High and Emerging Cultural Humility groups.

Discussion

Findings highlight the importance of integrating cultural humility training into mentor programs, particularly for mentors who may initially lack this awareness.

As authors note, “research in this area while challenging is critical to enhancing outcomes for marginalized youth”.

Implications for Mentoring Programs

  • Integration of Cultural Humility Training: Programs will want to consider developing and implementing training programs focused on enhancing cultural humility among mentors, particularly those with lower initial awareness.
  • Ongoing Support and Monitoring: Provide continuous support and monitoring to ensure that mentors maintain and develop cultural humility over time, potentially reducing early match terminations.

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