Motivations and activities of mentorship in community-based mentorship programs: a scoping review of literature

Mentoring has been shown to improve educational, workplace, and community outcomes. This scoping review investigated the motivations to mentor and the activities of mentorship in community-based mentorship programs. Researchers conducted a MEDLINE search to identify empirical studies that included adult mentors in community-based mentorship programs and reported results on mentors’ motivations to mentor and/or mentors’ reports on the activities of mentorship. Of articles meeting inclusion criteria (N = 45), 17 reported at least one motivation to mentor; the most common motivations were mentors’ desire to help (N = 9) and desire to learn or improve skills (N = 8). Of articles reporting at least one activity of mentoring (N = 43), the most common activities reported were helping with tasks (N = 16), engaging in discussion (N = 16), and helping mentees socially (e.g. conflict resolution; N = 13). Aligning mentorship program decision-making with the evidence-based motivations to mentor and activities of mentorship can reveal opportunities to promote engagement in mentoring.