The Effect of Peer Mentoring on Mentors Themselves: A Case Study of College Students

The number of students with disabilities attending higher education has been soaring. Support centres in the institutions provide assistance in the form of assistive technologies, private tutoring, meetings with counsellors, and workshops. Still, many students express lack of confidence and low self-esteem that extend beyond the academic sphere into their personal and social life. Using qualitative methods, this study examines a peer mentoring program in which the mentors are students with special needs, who, based on their strengths, provide assistance and mentoring to other students. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with these mentors. The analysis of the interviews sheds light on the participants’ narratives about the effect of mentoring on their academic success and their emotional and psychological well-being. Three central themes emerged from the interviews that describe the students’ transformation and improvement: (1) self-esteem; (2) self-efficacy; and (3) empowerment. These themes correspond with the significance and impact that students attribute to peer-mentoring. Thus, the study indicates that mentoring could be used as an additional therapeutic tool when working with students with special needs.