Gender differences in how help-seeking attitudes mediate the effect of academic competence on Latino youth's academic help-seeking

Research has shown that perceived competence (academic and social), academic motivation and relationships with individuals in the school environment are important predictors of students’ academic help-seeking behavior. Few studies have examined help-seeking attitudes as a mediator of these relationships and even fewer studies have examined gender as a moderator of these relationships among Latino youth. This study investigated whether perceiving the benefits of help-seeking mediated the relationships between perceived competence, intrinsic motivation, and sense of school belonging and help-seeking behaviors. Data came from 284 9th grade students (141 girls; 91% Latino/a) who participated in a larger, study designed to evaluate a program to promote adaptive transitions to an urban high school. The current study combined program and control groups because there was no difference between groups in the variables examined. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to examine whether high levels of perceived competence (academic and social), sense of school belonging and intrinsic motivation would predict high levels of help-seeking and whether these relationships would be mediated by the perceived benefits of help-seeking. In addition, gender was analyzed as a moderator using multiple group SEM. Results showed that the more academically competent girls felt, the more likely they were to think help-seeking would be beneficial, and the more likely they were to, in turn, seek help. Although boys who felt academically competent were also more likely to think help-seeking would be beneficial, that was not related to their help-seeking. School belonging positively predicted students’ degree of help-seeking, but no evidence was found to suggest that perceived benefits of help-seeking mediated its direct effects on students’ degree of help-seeking. The final model explained 46% of the variance in help-seeking for girls, but only 3% for boys. The findings suggest that for girls, perceived benefits of help-seeking and perceived academic competence are viable targets for school-based interventions that aim to increase help-seeking. For boys targeting these variables with school-based interventions may not yield significant changes in help-seeking. For both genders, sense of school belonging is an important predictor of help-seeking and may also be targeted by interventions that intend to increase help-seeking.M.S.Includes bibliographical referencesby Patricia Simo