Cross-gender mentorship in clinical psychology doctoral programs: an exploratory survey study

The mentorship experiences of recent clinical psychology doctorates reporting a primary mentor in graduate school were assessed by means of a survey. Among 518 responding psychologists, male graduates were significantly more likely to have a same-gender mentor, and female graduates were more likely to report receiving support from mentors of both genders. Both male and female respondents who had cross-gender mentors were significantly more likely to report attraction to the mentor, negative experiences related to the mentor's seductiveness, and difficulty terminating the mentorship than respondents with same-gender mentors. These results call into question some common assumptions about mentorship gender pairing in graduate school and subsequent differences in both positive and negative relationship outcomes.