  Recent studies have identified several young stellar objects (YSOs) which
exhibit significant mid-infrared (mid-IR) variability. A wide range of physical
mechanisms may be responsible for these variations, including changes in a
YSO's accretion rate or in the extinction or emission from the inner disk. We
have obtained and analyzed multi-epoch near-infrared (NIR) spectra for five
actively accreting YSOs in the $\rho$ Oph star-forming region along with
contemporaneous mid-IR light curves obtained as part of the YSOVAR Spitzer/IRAC
survey. Four of the five YSOs exhibit mid-IR light curves with modest ($\sim
0.2$--0.4 mag) but statistically significant variations over our 40-day
observation window. Measuring the strengths of prominent photospheric
absorption lines and accretion sensitive \ion{H}{1} and \ion{He}{1} lines in
each NIR spectrum, we derive estimates of each YSO's spectral type, effective
temperature ({\Teff}), and $H$ band extinction ($A_H$), and analyze the time
evolution of their NIR veiling ($r_H$ and $r_K$) and mass accretion rates
({\Macc}). Defining a YSO's evolutionary stage such that heavily veiled, high
accretion rate objects are less evolved than those with lower levels of veiling
and ongoing accretion, we infer that GY 314 is the most evolved YSO in our
sample, with GY 308 and GY 292 at progressively earlier evolutionary stages.
Leveraging our multi-epoch, multi-wavelength dataset, we detect significant
variations in mass accretion rates over timescales of days to weeks, but find
that extinction levels in these YSOs remain relatively constant. We find no
correlation between these YSO mid-IR light curves and time-resolved veiling or
mass accretion rates, such that we are unable to link their mid-IR variability
with physical processes localized near the inner edge of the circumstellar disk
or within regions which are directly responsive to mass accretion...
