Academic help seeking from peers during adolescence: The role of social goals

Help-Seeking Matters: Exploring the Dual Effects of Stress Mindsets on Academic Behaviors

Due to the increasing academic pressure, it is almost impossible for college students to flourish without seeking any help from others. Yet, how individuals' beliefs about stress impact help-seeking and its outcomes lacks adequate attention. Despite a growing recognition of help-seeking, less is known about whether help-seeking always benefits students under pressure, and how different stress mindsets motivate help-seeking in different ways. We adopt the two-dimensional theory of help-seeking to highlight how stress mindsets influence academic behaviors via help-seeking. A three-wave survey of 488 students in China revealed that: (1) Autonomous help-seeking (AHS) enhances academic engagement and inhibits academic burnout, whereas dependent help-seeking (DHS) exacerbates academic burnout and weakens academic engagement. (2) Stress-is-enhancing mindset (SIEM) drives AHS, and stress-is-debilitating mindset (SIDM) drives DHS. (3) SIEM contributes to academic engagement via AHS, and SIDM contributes to academic burnout via DHS. By examining the distinctive drivers of two-dimensional help-seeking and the differential impact of help-seeking on academic behaviors, our study seeks to build on previous research by using help-seeking to develop a new theoretical model of stress mindsets and academic behaviors, theorizing and testing multiple antecedents and consequences associated with the bright and dark sides of help-seeking. In doing so, our research reveals the paradoxical mediation effects of help-seeking between stress mindsets and academic behaviors, providing a more in-depth depiction of the nature of help-seeking that advances the understanding of the existing literature.

Sex and Dominance Differences in the Relationship Between Childhood Trauma and Prosocial Behavior: The Roles of Meaning in Life and Resilience

The impact of childhood trauma on adolescents' development is a key topic in social science. Much of the existing literature focuses on its negative consequences, with limited study on its effects on positive social functions, particularly prosocial behavior. This study aims to uncover the link between childhood trauma and prosocial behavior among Chinese adolescents, focusing on how meaning in life and resilience mediate this relationship and how sex and social dominance goals moderate these effects. This study utilized random cluster sampling to survey 659 adolescents (mean age = 15.05, SD = 1.576, 53.6% female) in Huai'an City, Jiangsu Province, China. Data on childhood trauma, meaning in life, resilience, and prosocial behavior were collected through self-reported measures. The data were analyzed through Process Macro Model 4 for mediation effects and Model 8 for moderated mediation in SPSS 26.0. Findings indicated that meaning in life (β = -.042, P < .001, SE = 0.015) and resilience (β = -.071, P < .001, SE = 0.018) partially mediate the impact of the main effect. Social dominance goals reduced the negative effects of trauma on prosocial behavior; higher levels lead to reduced impacts (β = -.173, P < .001, SE = 0.039, t = -4.448). Sex differences also moderated the effect of trauma on meaning in life, with females experiencing a greater decrease in the meaning of life after adversity (β = -.825, P < .001, SE = 0.112, t = -7.372). This research offers new insights into the mechanisms by which childhood trauma affects prosocial behavior and emphasizes the need to consider sex and social dominance goals in trauma interventions.

Psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the academic help seeking scale in a sample of adults

Although academic help-seeking is an important variable in the academic context, as it is related to academic achievement, college adjustment and teacher support, among other variables, no instruments evaluate it in the Spanish adult population. The main goal of the current study was to develop an adaptation of the Academic Help-Seeking Scale for the Spanish adult population with suitable psychometric properties. The sample consisted of 536 adults with an average age of 24.98 (SD = 8.55). The exploratory factor analysis in the first half of the sample suggested that only one factor was underlying the data, and the confirmatory factor analysis in the second half showed that the factor structure replicated in a different sample. The results suggest that this adaptation has appropriate psychometric properties, and adequate reliability and convergent validity. We also found the expected relationships with gender and academic achievement. Therefore, this instrument may be useful for researchers and education professionals who need to assess this behaviour in adults so that they can help them improve their academic performance. The study also contributes to a better understanding of academic help-seeking as an adaptative learning strategy and the variables it is related to.

Transcend socioeconomic status constraints to mathematics and science achievement by collaborative problem-solving: The female people-smartness hypothesis

This study examines the female people-smartness (FPS) hypothesis, which addresses the reasons why females are more responsive to socioeconomic status (SES) and posits that using females’ strengths of people-smartness can assist females to overcome SES constraints. This study used data from the student surveys of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2015, including 519,334 students from 72 participating countries and economies. The results of the general linear model analysis revealed that females are better at collaborative problem-solving (CPS) and reading, while males are better at mathematics and science. Structural equation modeling revealed that the effect of SES on (mathematics and science) achievement is higher for females than for males. CPS can reduce the effect of SES on achievement. The findings generally support the FPS hypothesis and suggest that CPS-related competences should be emphasized and exercised to transcend SES constraints, especially for females in STEM curricula, studies and careers.

Early Adolescents' Social Achievement Goals and Perceived Relational Support: Their Additive and Interactive Effects on Social Behavior

The current study examined the additive and interactive effects of early adolescents' social achievement goals and perceived relational support from teachers and peers on their social behavior. Adolescents' social achievement goals (i.e., social development, social demonstration-approach, and social demonstration-avoidance), perceived relational support from teachers and peers, and social behavior (i.e., overt and relational aggression, prosocial behavior, and anxious solitary behavior) were assessed in a sample of fifth and sixth graders (M _age = 12.5; N = 677) nested within 26 classrooms. Multilevel modeling results indicated that social goals and relational support from teachers and peers made additive contributions to adolescents' social behavior. Results also indicated the evidence of interactive effects, such that relational support from teachers was negatively associated with overt and relational aggression primarily among adolescents who had high social demonstration-approach goals. Findings underscore the need to consider adolescents' social goals in conjunction with their perceived relational support for educators and practitioners.

Perceived Peer Exclusion as Predictor of Students’ Help-Seeking Strategies in Higher Education

Abstract. Feeling excluded by fellow students may be associated with lower levels of adaptive help-seeking. In a cross-sectional study, we compared self-reported help-seeking strategies (autonomy-oriented, dependency-oriented, help-seeking avoidance) among N = 418 students in 25 seminar and tutorial groups in the undergraduate introductory courses of two subject domains: computer science and education. Analyses showed that, overall, students reported lower autonomy-oriented help-seeking and higher help-seeking avoidance in computer science than in education. In computer science, perceived peer exclusion predicted more help-seeking avoidance among both male and female students and less autonomy-oriented help-seeking among females. In education, however, perceived peer exclusion was a significant predictor of both male and female students’ lower autonomy-oriented help-seeking. Results suggest that, in computer science, help-seeking appears to have an “image problem” signaling competence-related inferiority rather than being a form of effective self-regulated learning. Implications for enhancing adaptive help exchange cultures in computer science are discussed.