See Measures section of Materials and Methods for greater detail on the individual measures, including citations for established scales.
| Composite | Individual measures | No. of items | Sample item |
| Career satisfaction and success (individual measures standardized and averaged; α = 0.77) | Job satisfaction (α = 0.89) | 8 | “I enjoy going to work.” 1 = strongly disagree; 6 = strongly agree |
| Workplace belonging uncertainty (r = 0.52) | 2 | “When something bad happens, I feel that maybe I don’t belong at my workplace.” 1 = strongly disagree; 6 = strongly agree | |
| Self-rated percentile success to date | 1 | “Using a percentile rank, assess your current level of success compared with other [school] alumni from your class.” 0% to 100% | |
| Self-rated percentile potential to succeed in the future | 1 | “Using a percentile rank, assess your potential, compared with other [school] alumni from your class, to succeed in the future.” 0% to 100% | |
| General psychological well-being (individual measures standardized and averaged; α = 0.77) | Subjective happiness (α = 0.89) | 4 | “In general, I consider myself...” 1 = not a happy person; 7 = a very happy person |
| Life satisfaction (α = 0.80) | 5 | “In most ways my life is close to my ideal.” 1 = strongly disagree; 7 = strongly agree | |
| Perception of life stress as overwhelming (α = 0.85) | 4 | “In the last month, how often have you felt that you were unable to control the important things in your life?” 1 = never; 5 = very often | |
| Physical health (individual measures standardized and averaged; α = 0.71) | Self-reported general health (α = 0.80) | 5 | “My health is excellent.” 1 = definitely false; 5 = definitely true |
| Sick days (reverse coded) | 1 | “In the past 3 months, how many days of work or school did you miss due to illness?” open response: numeric | |
| Doctor visits (reverse coded) | 1 | “In the past 3 months, how many times did you go to the doctor?” open response: numeric | |
| Community involvement and leadership (summed to yield 0 to 16 scale) | Number of areas very involved in (up to eight) | 2 | “Since [you received your undergraduate degree], to what extent have you participated in [eight different types of activities, e.g., sports/games, cultural/identity organizations, religious, professional]?”count of activities involved in “a lot” |
| Number of areas in which a leadership position was held (up to eight) | “Have you held a leadership position in any of these activities?” count of activities indicated “yes” | ||
| College mentorship (individual measures standardized and averaged; α = 0.61) | Had a general mentor during college | 1 | “While you were an undergraduate, was there anyone associated with [school], other than fellow undergraduates, to whom you could turn for support, advice, or encouragement when you faced a problem or difficulty in or out of school?” yes/no |
| Had an academic mentor during college | 1 | “While you were an undergraduate, did anyone associated with [school], other than fellow undergraduates, take a special interest in you and your academic development? ” yes/no | |
| Whether academic mentorship continued after college | 1 | After having identified an academic mentor they had in college, participants were asked: “When did you receive mentorship from [this college]?” selected “mentorship continued after graduation” or did not | |
| Importance of “most meaningful” college mentorship | 1 | “How important to you was the [most meaningful mentorship you received during college]?” 1 = not very important; 5 = extremely important |