patriciasimon

Title of QTUG presentation:

Perceived Benefits of Academic Help-seeking Mediate the Relationship between Academic Competence and Academic Help-seeking in 9th Grade among Girls but not Boys

List of Author and co-authors for QTUG presentation:

Patricia Simon, Brenna H. Bry, Ph.D, Eun-Young Mun, Ph.D., Valerie L. Johnson, Ph.D.

Abstract This study investigated whether perceiving the benefits of academic help-seeking mediated the relationships between perceived academic, social, and help-seeking competence, intrinsic motivation, and sense of school belonging measured at the beginning of 9th grade and academic help-seeking behaviors at the end of 9th grade. A total of 284 high school students (141 girls; 96% Latino/a) came from a larger, school-based, peer-led prevention study designed to promote adaptive transitions to an urban school. In the current study, we combined prevention and control groups because there were no group differences in the variables examined. Two-group path analyses were conducted to examine direct effects of competence and school-related measures on help-seeking behaviors and to examine mediation effects. For each model, we tested two models in which path coefficients were gender-invariant and gender-specific. These models were compared in terms of goodness-of-fit statistics and estimated coefficients.

Results indicated that while academic and help-seeking competence were linked to perceived benefits of help-seeking in boys, it was not, in turn, related to help-seeking behavior. Among girls, however, perceived benefit of academic help-seeking mediated the relationship between academic competence and help-seeking behavior. These findings suggest that academically competent girls seek help partly because they believe it is beneficial.