This quantitative study explored the leadership styles of mentors for retained first-year adult students to analyze whether the prevalent style had a higher impact on first-year adult student retention. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) 5x was used to collect data on the mentors' leadership styles from the perspective of retained first-year adult students and from the perspective of their mentors at a private Midwestern, urban, University to compare the prevalent style from both perspectives. The convenience sampling method was used to identify the study participants. Descriptive statistics were conducted to check the normalcy of those data. Histograms revealed that the data was not normally distributed. Those data were further analyzed using the Wilcoxon test, which revealed no significant difference from mentor self-ratings and student ratings for the two leadership styles under consideration. The Spearman Correlation Coefficient was utilized to test the null hypothesis. The results indicated no statistically significant relationship existed between transformational or transactional leadership and retained first-year adult students, thus the researcher did not reject the null hypothesis. Further data testing using Simple Linear Regressions was conducted to investigate transformational and transactional leadership styles based on mentor demographics and tenure. The results of the analyses indicated that mentor demographics or tenure is not a significant predictor of a particular leadership style for this study. It is evident from the results that a significant position of the retained first-year adult students in this study considers their mentors' leadership style did not provided the means for their retention. [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.]