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.