The purpose of this qualitative study was to gain a greater understanding of the interpersonal relationships between mentors and mentees in one early childhood, teacher-initiated, mentoring program. The mentoring program was designed to facilitate the induction process of newly-employed teachers into the university-based early childhood center. Mentoring for professional development in education, specifically in early childhood, has been portrayed as a cure-all for a wide variety of instructive and logistical ills. Research has established, however, that the effectiveness of mentoring for professional development in any educational setting is contingent upon the quality of the interpersonal relationship between the mentor and mentee. This study explored the interpersonal mentoring relationships of six early childhood teachers through the use of qualitative research methods. These methods provided an opportunity to gain a greater understanding of how the quality of mentoring relationships influenced the mentees' induction process at the center. Data from participants' interviews were collected and analyzed using grounded theory techniques. Findings illustrated how four aspects of the early childhood environment influenced interpersonal mentoring relationships. The four environments identified through data analysis of the participants' interviews were: the physical environment, the professional environment, the social environment, and the emotional environment. An auxiliary category, personal characters, also emerged as being influential to mentoring relationships. However, looking through the lens of environmental influences made it possible to explore mentoring relationships in the context of the multifaceted and complex setting of early childhood education. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]