TY - JOUR
T1 - Help-Seeking Matters
T2 - Exploring the Dual Effects of Stress Mindsets on Academic Behaviors
AU - Zhang, Jianwei
AU - Guo, Guangxia
AU - Fu, Mengmeng
AU - Yang, Wenya
AU - Li, Changyue
AU - Jiang, Yunshan
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2025.
PY - 2025
Y1 - 2025
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - academic behaviors
KW - Autonomous help-seeking
KW - dependent help-seeking
KW - stress mindsets
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=105005587964&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/00332941251343550
DO - 10.1177/00332941251343550
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:105005587964
SN - 0033-2941
JO - Psychological Reports
JF - Psychological Reports
M1 - 00332941251343550
ER -