The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 43, No. 3 - 60

Sherry L. Early

. . . RAs with student affairs
mentors are predicted to exhibit
higher leadership efficacy
capacities. These results suggest that
student affairs administrators have
the potential to impact protégés'
confidence levels and encourage
them to create positive purposeful
transformational change in their
communities.

variables were also included in the model. It
was hypothesized that same-gender pairs
would score significantly higher on socially responsible leadership based on MSL 2006 findings. Through regression analysis, race match
and gender match for mentor-protégé pairings
did not predict leadership capacity (socially
responsible leadership and leadership efficacy). Therefore, gender match and race match
mentor-protégé pairs do not differ from crossgender and cross-race mentor-protégé pairs.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE
The findings from this study can equip educators and potential mentors with evidence-based
information on the benefits of cultivating the
leadership capacities of resident assistants.
These results also address both practical and
scholarly implications often missing in research findings. The student affairs practitioners (hall directors, student organization

advisors, leadership coordinators, fraternity
and sorority advisors) that resident assistants
learn from outside of the classroom, and the
faculty they learn from inside the classroom,
can have a direct, positive influence on RAs'
leadership capacities.
This study offers not only a unique contribution to the MSL research agenda, but also
insights into a new constituent audience:
housing and residence life administrators.
Since student success and collaboration with
academic affairs are priorities at many institutions of higher education, this research could
be helpful to hall directors, faculty associated
with living-learning communities, and advisors of residential organizations (Residence
Hall Association, National Residence Hall
Honorary, hall government) who may serve as
mentors to resident assistants. Findings from
this study suggest that even one quality mentoring encounter is beneficial for RAs. In addition, mentored RAs scored significantly higher
than did non-mentored RAs on each value of
the Social Change Model, socially responsible
leadership, and leadership efficacy. Additionally, RAs mentored by student affairs professionals scored higher than did those with any other
type of significant mentor on both mentoring
outcomes and leadership efficacy. Due to the
nature of the profession, student affairs professionals, including housing and residence life
administrators, have various opportunities to
establish mentoring relationships with RAs
and to help build their confidence in their abilities as leaders. Although there were some benefits to the type of mentor and/or the gender
and race match of mentor-protégé pairings,
the main finding was that any type of mentoring relationship is crucial in the development

THE JOURNAL OF COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY STUDENT HOUSING

The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 43, No. 3

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