This entry provides an overview of scholarship on mentoring, applying it to LGBTQ mentoring. Although no known research addresses LGBTQ mentoring specifically, study in related areas (e.g., gender and race in mentoring, psychology graduate training, LGBTQ career issues) offers considerations for LGBTQ mentoring.

Mentoring is an interpersonal process in which an experienced individual (the mentor) provides professional guidance to a less experienced person (the mentee or protégé). Guidance typically occurs in two domains: career-related or instrumental support (often termed sponsorship in the corporate world), including such activities as coaching, [Page 763]network building, fostering opportunities, and facilitating exposure; and psychosocial support, consisting of emotional support, counseling, role-modeling, and friendship. Mentoring is considered important to educational and professional success and has been linked to many related variables: academic ...