A Vertical Peer Mentorship Model to Promote Early Career Academic Development: Implementation and Initial Outcomes

Mentorship is critical for early career success. However, many barriers to mentorship exist, including inadequate supply of advanced mentors, inconsistent mentorship quality, and diverse mentorship needs. Additionally, few training experiences provide an opportunity to learn effective mentorship techniques. Vertical peer mentorship programs provide one solution to these pitfalls; slightly more advanced early career professionals (e.g., post-doctoral fellows) provide mentorship to more junior colleagues (e.g., graduate students), permitting mentorship and mentorship training in one dyad. Here, we detail the process of developing and refining an early career vertical peer mentorship program within a subspecialty of psychology. Initial evaluation data the first four years of the program (n=109 respondents) indicate that the program was highly acceptable (M=8.22, SD=4.25 on a 10-point scale) and productive (producing >25 manuscripts published or under review and >21 conference abstracts) during that time. This manuscript provides one model for developing a successful vertical peer mentorship program.