Cultural humility development in adults serving as mentors for youth: A qualitative evidence synthesis

Abstract

This qualitative review synthesizes evidence regarding how cultural humility (i.e., critical self-reflection, challenging inequity) may be influenced by the experience of serving as a mentor in a youth program. A systematic search identified 35 qualitative studies with findings that address this question. Thematic synthesis of extracted data identified the following six themes, all but one of which pertains to ways in which serving as a mentor appeared to have enhanced the cultural humility of the adults involved: (1) humanizing others: awareness of experiential differences, (2) reflecting inward on one's own identity, biases, and opportunities, (3) connecting with others, (4) recognizing environmental influences on human development, (5) envisioning contributions to community change, and (6) counterevidence: deficit-oriented attributions. Findings indicate that mentor cultural humility development primarily entailed individual and interpersonal awareness with relatively less evidence of increased awareness of and action to change inequality. The identified themes provide promising directions for future research as well as potentially useful avenues for incorporating consideration of cultural humility more intentionally in the development and evaluation of mentoring programs for youth.