Kayla Randall & Dr. Amira Ibrahim
Abstract
Academic Help-Seeking (AHS) is defined as “seeking support from individuals and other sources to help students to achieve good results in an academic context” (Martin-Arnos, Castarlenas, and Duenas, 2021, pg.1). Previous research has demonstrated that AHS significantly predicts academic success in undergraduate students. However, current research that explores race/ethnicity and gender in relation to help-seeking behaviors often only measures seeking counseling support, not academic support. Studying the relationship between AHS and students’ race/ethnicity and gender identity is essential due to the gaps in equity of minoritized populations and women. This current study explores the relationship between students’ race/ethnicity, gender identities, GPA, and AHS.
506 undergraduates completed a questionnaire during the Covid-19 remote instruction period containing the help-seeking subscale from the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire and reported their race/ethnicity and gender. The sample was 77% Female, 22.3% Male, 62.1% Hispanic, and 37.9% White. GPA was significantly correlated to AHS r (487) = 0.254, p < 0.001, with higher AHS being associated with higher semester GPA. Preliminary analysis showed no significant differences between Hispanic and White students in AHS. However, there was a significant difference between males (M= 15.57, SE=0.53) and females (M =16.92, SE = 0.29) on reported AHS F (505,1) = 4.346, p = .038. There was no significant race/ethnicity by gender interaction. Our findings suggest that female students are more likely to engage in AHS than male students. This finding aligns with previous research that found masculinity is associated with higher rates of help-seeking avoidance. In our current sample, we were limited to exploring the differences between males and females because the gender identity described as other was too small to compare the result; future studies should explore this question further with larger samples of Males, Females, and different gender identities.
Details
Session 2
3:00pm – 4:30pm
Grand Salon
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