SABER West 2026

The Mentee’s Voice: Unpacking Perceptions of Mentoring That Foster Resilience and Self-Efficacy

This talk, given in January 2026, focused on data from cohort 4 of AK UNiTE in the summer of 2025.

Preparing the Data for Analysis

For this analysis, we used the Cohort4 data from the Summer 2025 Data Set.

#|label: load_packages
#|mmessage: false
#|eecho: false
library(tidyverse)

── Attaching core tidyverse packages ──────────────────────── tidyverse 2.0.0 ──
✔ dplyr     1.1.4     ✔ readr     2.1.6
✔ forcats   1.0.1     ✔ stringr   1.6.0
✔ ggplot2   4.0.1     ✔ tibble    3.3.0
✔ lubridate 1.9.4     ✔ tidyr     1.3.1
✔ purrr     1.2.0     
── Conflicts ────────────────────────────────────────── tidyverse_conflicts() ──
✖ dplyr::filter() masks stats::filter()
✖ dplyr::lag()    masks stats::lag()
ℹ Use the conflicted package (<http://conflicted.r-lib.org/>) to force all conflicts to become errors

library(lme4)

Loading required package: Matrix

Attaching package: 'Matrix'

The following objects are masked from 'package:tidyr':

    expand, pack, unpack

library(lmerTest)

Attaching package: 'lmerTest'

The following object is masked from 'package:lme4':

    lmer

The following object is masked from 'package:stats':

    step

library(emmeans)

Welcome to emmeans.
Caution: You lose important information if you filter this package's results.
See '? untidy'

Read the raw data from the dataraw folder into the environment

Rows: 77 Columns: 46
── Column specification ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Delimiter: ","
chr (45): ProgramMonth, APPType, PreviousPart, PreviousCohort, YearsResearch...
dbl  (1): StudyNumber

ℹ Use `spec()` to retrieve the full column specification for this data.
ℹ Specify the column types or set `show_col_types = FALSE` to quiet this message.

Review the data to ensure we know which types of data are in each column.

glimpse(cohort4)

Rows: 77
Columns: 46
$ StudyNumber             <dbl> 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6…
$ ProgramMonth            <chr> "August 2025", "July 2025", "June 2025", "Augu…
$ APPType                 <chr> "Document the mentoring experience from the me…
$ PreviousPart            <chr> "Yes", "Yes", "No", "No", "No", "No", "No", "N…
$ PreviousCohort          <chr> "Cohort 3 mentoring participant", "Cohort 3 me…
$ YearsResearchTraining   <chr> "less than 1 year", "less than 1 year", "less …
$ ResearchTitle           <chr> "Undergraduate researcher", "Undergraduate res…
$ W1_AchieveGoals         <chr> "Somewhat agree", "Agree", "Agree", "Agree", "…
$ W1_AccomplishTasks      <chr> "Somewhat agree", "Somewhat agree", "Somewhat …
$ W1_ObtainOutcomes       <chr> "Agree", "Somewhat agree", "Agree", "Agree", "…
$ W1_Succeed              <chr> "Agree", "Agree", "Somewhat agree", "Somewhat …
$ W1_Overcome             <chr> "Somewhat agree", "Agree", "Somewhat agree", "…
$ W1_ConfidentTasks       <chr> "Somewhat agree", "Somewhat agree", "Somewhat …
$ W1_PeerComparison       <chr> "Agree", "Somewhat agree", "Somewhat agree", "…
$ W1_ToughPerformance     <chr> "Somewhat agree", "Somewhat agree", "Somewhat …
$ W1_AdaptChange          <chr> "Often true", "Often true", "Often true", "Oft…
$ W1_Resilience           <chr> "Often true", "Often true", "Often true", "Oft…
$ W1_ResearchExpectations <chr> "In my current research project I am working w…
$ W1_SuccessPotential     <chr> "In my undergraduate research project I’ve got…
$ W1_MentorSupport        <chr> "The biggest thing mentors can do to support t…
$ W1_OpenResponse         <chr> "I had a picnic with my friends.", "I am going…
$ W2_DefineAmbigousR      <chr> "A ambiguous situation in research is one that…
$ W2_HandleAmbigousR      <chr> "Referring to previous literature is a good pl…
$ W2_MentoringAmbigousR   <chr> "Mentors can provide moral support as well as …
$ W2_MentoringNG          <chr> "I think not being straightforward is the bigg…
$ W2_OpenResponse         <chr> "I had a game night with my best friends", "I …
$ W3_OutcomeEffort        <chr> "Proving the hypothesis and/or learning new in…
$ W3_Motivation           <chr> "Knowing that the research you are conducting …
$ W3_Support              <chr> "My personal values are important in preservin…
$ W3_OpenResponse         <chr> "I started a new book!", "I went to the arcade…
$ W4_AchieveGoals         <chr> "Agree", "Somewhat agree", "Agree", "Agree", "…
$ W4_AccomplishTasks      <chr> "Agree", "Agree", "Somewhat agree", "Agree", "…
$ W4_ObtainOutcomes       <chr> "Agree", "Somewhat agree", "Agree", "Agree", "…
$ W4_Succeed              <chr> "Agree", "Agree", "Somewhat agree", "Somewhat …
$ W4_Overcome             <chr> "Somewhat agree", "Agree", "Agree", "Agree", "…
$ W4_ConfidentTasks       <chr> "Somewhat agree", "Somewhat agree", "Agree", "…
$ W4_PeerComparison       <chr> "Somewhat agree", "Somewhat agree", "Agree", "…
$ W4_ToughPerformance     <chr> "Somewhat agree", "Agree", "Agree", "Somewhat …
$ W4_AdaptChange          <chr> "Often true", "Often true", "Often true", "Oft…
$ W4_Resilience           <chr> "Sometimes true", "Sometimes true", "Often tru…
$ W4_1Scientist           <chr> "Being in the lab for the first time in underg…
$ W4_MeaningfulMentor     <chr> "I am fortunate enough to have great mentors f…
$ W4_BelongNG             <chr> "I’ve had a couple of experiences where I didn…
$ W4_MentorDescription    <chr> "Mentoring has played an important role in my …
$ W4_MentorExpectations   <chr> "I expect my mentor to show interest in my goa…
$ W4_OpenResponse         <chr> "I learned how to make lasagna!", "I am planni…

Fix columns that are not the correct type. In particular, we are changing the W1_AchieveGoals to be a chr and not dbl

#|echo: false
cohort4 <- cohort4 %>%
  mutate(W1_AchieveGoals = as.character(W1_AchieveGoals))

To assign numbers to the Likert scale choices for the New General Self-efficacy Scale and the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, we will run code that maps strongly agree, agree, etc., to the appropriate numbers.

# Define the Likert scale mappings for reuse
likert_6_map <- c(
  "Strongly disagree" = 1, "Disagree" = 2, "Somewhat disagree" = 3,
  "Somewhat agree" = 4, "Agree" = 5, "Strongly agree" = 6
)

likert_5_map <- c(
  "Never true" = 1, "Rarely true" = 2, "Sometimes true" = 3,
  "Often true" = 4, "True nearly all the time" = 5
)

Create New Data Table with Scores and Categories

Create a new data object called cohort4_with_composite that includes composite scores for self-efficacy and resilience, adds new columns for mentee/mentor, and categorizes years of research training. It will also ensure that each variable is of the correct type and that the months are in the correct order.

#|echo: false
cohort4_with_composite <- cohort4 %>%
  mutate(StudyNumber = as.factor(StudyNumber)) %>%
# === 1. Convert Likert Text to Numeric Scores
  mutate(
    across(
      # Select columns that start with W1_ or W4_ and match the conditions(except W1_AdaptChange/W1_Resilience)
      matches("^W[14]_(AchieveGoals|AccomplishTasks|ObtainOutcomes|Succeed|Overcome|ConfidentTasks|PeerComparison|ToughPerformance)"), 
      ~ likert_6_map[.] # Apply the 6-point map
    ),
    across(
      # Select only the Resilience/AdaptChange columns
      matches("^W[14]_(AdaptChange|Resilience)$"),
      ~ likert_5_map[.] # Apply the 5-point map
    )
  ) %>%
  # === 2. Calculate Composite Scores (Self-Efficacy and Resilience) ===
  rowwise() %>%
  mutate(
    # Self-Efficacy (8 items)
    Composite_Self_Efficacy_W1 = mean(c_across(c(
      W1_AchieveGoals, W1_AccomplishTasks, W1_ObtainOutcomes, W1_Succeed, 
      W1_Overcome, W1_ConfidentTasks, W1_PeerComparison, 
      W1_ToughPerformance,
    )), na.rm = TRUE),
    
    Composite_Self_Efficacy_W4 = mean(c_across(c(
      W4_AchieveGoals, W4_AccomplishTasks, W4_ObtainOutcomes, W4_Succeed, 
      W4_Overcome, W4_ConfidentTasks, W4_PeerComparison, 
      W4_ToughPerformance,
    )), na.rm = TRUE),
    # Resilience (2 items)
    Composite_Resilience_W1 = mean(c_across(c(W1_AdaptChange, W1_Resilience)), na.rm = TRUE),
    Composite_Resilience_W4 = mean(c_across(c(W4_AdaptChange, W4_Resilience)), na.rm = TRUE)
  ) %>%
  ungroup() %>%
  
  # === 3. Create Categorical and Numeric Time/Grouping Variables ===
  mutate(
    # 1. Month_Number (Numeric for LMEM)
    Month_Number = case_when(
      ProgramMonth == "June 2025" ~ 1,
      ProgramMonth == "July 2025" ~ 2,
      ProgramMonth == "August 2025" ~ 3,
      .default = NA_real_
    ), # Added missing comma
    
    # 2. YearsResearchTraining (Numeric, then factor for grouping)
    YearsResearchTraining = case_when(
      YearsResearchTraining == "less than 1 year" ~ 1,
      YearsResearchTraining == "2 years" ~ 2,
      YearsResearchTraining == "3-4 years" ~ 3,
      YearsResearchTraining == "5-6 years" ~ 4,
      YearsResearchTraining == "7-8 years" ~ 5,
      YearsResearchTraining == "greater than 10 years" ~ 6,
      .default = NA_real_
    ),
    Years_Factor = as.factor(YearsResearchTraining), # Renamed to avoid overwriting
    
    # 3. Mentoring Category
    Mentoring_Category = factor(case_when(
      APPType == "Document the mentoring experience from the mentee's perspective." | 
        APPType == "Undergraduate Student Researcher" ~ "mentee",
      APPType == "Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience" | 
        APPType == "Design Your Own" | 
        APPType == "Mentoring Professional Development" | 
        APPType == "Research Vignette" ~ "mentor",
      .default = NA_character_
    )), # Closed parentheses correctly
    
    # 4. Research Title Category (Condensed into 3 groups)
    # Create the new 3-category variable using %in%
    Research_Category = case_when(
      ResearchTitle %in% c(
        "Undergraduate researcher", 
        "Volunteer researcher", 
        "Research technician (BS)", 
        "Other (please specify)"
      ) ~ "Undergraduates",
      
      ResearchTitle %in% c(
        "Graduate researcher (MS program)", 
        "Postdoctoral researcher", 
        "Research technician (MS)", 
        "Graduate researcher (Ph.D program)"
      ) ~ "Graduate Students",
      
      ResearchTitle %in% c(
        "Assistant Professor",
        "Primary Investigator as main academic appointment",
        "Primary investigator as secondary academic appointment",
        "Primary Investigator in agency or non-profit"
      ) ~ "Primary Investigators",
      
      TRUE ~ "Other" 
    ))

View the Cohort4_with_composite data table

glimpse(cohort4_with_composite)

Rows: 77
Columns: 54
$ StudyNumber                <fct> 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5…
$ ProgramMonth               <chr> "August 2025", "July 2025", "June 2025", "A…
$ APPType                    <chr> "Document the mentoring experience from the…
$ PreviousPart               <chr> "Yes", "Yes", "No", "No", "No", "No", "No",…
$ PreviousCohort             <chr> "Cohort 3 mentoring participant", "Cohort 3…
$ YearsResearchTraining      <dbl> 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 2, 2…
$ ResearchTitle              <chr> "Undergraduate researcher", "Undergraduate …
$ W1_AchieveGoals            <dbl> 4, 5, 5, 5, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 6, 5, 6, 5, 5…
$ W1_AccomplishTasks         <dbl> 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 4, 5, 5, 6, 5, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6…
$ W1_ObtainOutcomes          <dbl> 5, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6, 5, 5…
$ W1_Succeed                 <dbl> 5, 5, 4, 4, 3, 4, 6, 5, 4, 5, 6, 5, 5, 5, 4…
$ W1_Overcome                <dbl> 4, 5, 4, 5, 6, 5, 6, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6…
$ W1_ConfidentTasks          <dbl> 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 6, 6, 5, 6…
$ W1_PeerComparison          <dbl> 5, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 4, 5, 6, 5, 5…
$ W1_ToughPerformance        <dbl> 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 6, 5, 6, 6, 6…
$ W1_AdaptChange             <dbl> 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 4, 5, 5, 5…
$ W1_Resilience              <dbl> 4, 4, 4, 4, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5…
$ W1_ResearchExpectations    <chr> "In my current research project I am workin…
$ W1_SuccessPotential        <chr> "In my undergraduate research project I’ve …
$ W1_MentorSupport           <chr> "The biggest thing mentors can do to suppor…
$ W1_OpenResponse            <chr> "I had a picnic with my friends.", "I am go…
$ W2_DefineAmbigousR         <chr> "A ambiguous situation in research is one t…
$ W2_HandleAmbigousR         <chr> "Referring to previous literature is a good…
$ W2_MentoringAmbigousR      <chr> "Mentors can provide moral support as well …
$ W2_MentoringNG             <chr> "I think not being straightforward is the b…
$ W2_OpenResponse            <chr> "I had a game night with my best friends", …
$ W3_OutcomeEffort           <chr> "Proving the hypothesis and/or learning new…
$ W3_Motivation              <chr> "Knowing that the research you are conducti…
$ W3_Support                 <chr> "My personal values are important in preser…
$ W3_OpenResponse            <chr> "I started a new book!", "I went to the arc…
$ W4_AchieveGoals            <dbl> 5, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 6, 5, 5, 5, 4, 5…
$ W4_AccomplishTasks         <dbl> 5, 5, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6…
$ W4_ObtainOutcomes          <dbl> 5, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6, 6, 4, 4, 5…
$ W4_Succeed                 <dbl> 5, 5, 4, 4, 3, 4, 6, 6, 5, 6, 5, 6, 4, 5, 5…
$ W4_Overcome                <dbl> 4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 6, 5, 6, 6, 6, 6…
$ W4_ConfidentTasks          <dbl> 4, 4, 5, 5, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6, 5, 5, 6, 6…
$ W4_PeerComparison          <dbl> 4, 4, 5, 5, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6, 6, 4, 5, 6, 5…
$ W4_ToughPerformance        <dbl> 4, 5, 5, 4, 5, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6, 6, 5, 6, 6, 6…
$ W4_AdaptChange             <dbl> 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 3, 5, 5, 5…
$ W4_Resilience              <dbl> 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5…
$ W4_1Scientist              <chr> "Being in the lab for the first time in und…
$ W4_MeaningfulMentor        <chr> "I am fortunate enough to have great mentor…
$ W4_BelongNG                <chr> "I’ve had a couple of experiences where I d…
$ W4_MentorDescription       <chr> "Mentoring has played an important role in …
$ W4_MentorExpectations      <chr> "I expect my mentor to show interest in my …
$ W4_OpenResponse            <chr> "I learned how to make lasagna!", "I am pla…
$ Composite_Self_Efficacy_W1 <dbl> 4.375, 4.375, 4.250, 4.750, 4.625, 4.500, 5…
$ Composite_Self_Efficacy_W4 <dbl> 4.500, 4.500, 4.750, 4.750, 4.500, 4.625, 5…
$ Composite_Resilience_W1    <dbl> 4.0, 4.0, 4.0, 4.0, 3.5, 3.5, 4.0, 4.0, 4.0…
$ Composite_Resilience_W4    <dbl> 3.5, 3.5, 4.0, 4.0, 4.5, 4.5, 4.0, 4.0, 4.0…
$ Month_Number               <dbl> 3, 2, 1, 3, 2, 1, 3, 2, 1, 3, 2, 1, 3, 2, 1…
$ Years_Factor               <fct> 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 2, 2…
$ Mentoring_Category         <fct> mentee, mentee, mentee, mentee, mentee, men…
$ Research_Category          <chr> "Undergraduates", "Undergraduates", "Underg…