The impact of demographic factors and ethnicity on academic help-seeking behaviours in a multicultural university context

ABSTRACT

This research used three scales to explore ethnicity and other variables’ effects on university students’ self-assessed academic help-seeking. The scores from each respective scale were regressed onto academic and demographic variables. In two of the three regression models, Age was the only significant factor, older students self-assessing as less avoidant and more persuaded of the benefits of help-seeking. However, investigating an interaction in one model revealed that older Pacific Islanders followed an opposite pattern, self-assessing as more avoidant of help-seeking with increased age, and significantly more avoidant than same-age peers of other ethnicities. Pacific Islanders also self-assessed significantly higher in instrumental help-seeking. In summary, except for Pacific Islanders, ethnic background had surprisingly little effect on academic help-seeking, a finding which may be attributable to the highly multicultural research setting. These findings suggest that younger students and older Pacific Islanders may benefit from focused efforts to facilitate their receiving academic help.

KEYWORDS:

• Academic help-seeking
• ethnicity
• culture
• international students
• postsecondary

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical approval

The research was carried out in accordance with the standards of research ethics required by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of Brigham Young University – Hawaii where the research was carried out. The approval number assigned to this project was 22-11.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/2005615X.2024.2318689

Notes

1. When data were analysed, all participant response data were shifted to create a zero point on the scale (‘not at all true’ = 0 and ‘completely true’ = 7).

2. For the Instrumental Help-seeking and Avoidance of Help-seeking scales, we eliminated data for items that were removed during the EFAs.

3. The one Pacific Islander included in the permutation test, but not in the MLR analyses, was in the 24 and older category and had a relatively low Avoidance of Help-seeking score (5). Including this participant protected against a Type I error by reducing the significance of the permutation test rather than accentuating it. Three others who were included in the permutation test, but not in the regressions were not Pacific Islanders. Their Avoidance scores are of less consequence for the test given the higher sample of included participants (n = 64) who were not Pacific Islanders.

Additional information

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Notes on contributors

Steven J. Carter

Steven J. Carter , MA TESOL, is an Assistant Professor in the English Language Teaching and Learning programme at Brigham Young University–Hawaii. He has taught English language courses in both intensive English and community English programmes. He has a background in curriculum development, having worked on three major curriculum development projects. He also has been involved in the creation, analysis, and revision of numerous assessments. His research interests include emotion self-regulation and self-efficacy in academic settings, second language reading, and assessment.

Ka Lun Wong

Ka Lun Wong, Ph.D. in Mathematics, is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Math and Computing at Brigham Young University–Hawaii. He has taught various levels of college Math classes including but not limited to quantitative reasoning, precalculus, trigonometry, calculus, statistics, linear algebra, differential equations, real analysis, and abstract algebra. His research interest is number theory. He mentors students in the Putnam Math Competition and in mathematical research in number theory. He is a reviewer for the AMS MathSciNet Mathematical Review and other math journals.

Emily Bradshaw

Emily Bradshaw, MA Instructional Psychology and Technology, is an adjunct faculty member in the English programme at BYU-Hawaii. She is also a curriculum manager. She has worked in curriculum design for English composition and on improving classroom engagement through the Center for Teaching and Learning. Emily’s research extends to localization of curriculum and adoption of Open Educational Resources.

Zoia Falevai

Zoia Falevai is an Associate Professor and an Instruction and Reference Librarian at the Joseph F. Smith Library at Brigham Young University–Hawaii. She teaches Pacific Islands Studies courses in addition to information literacy and research workshops and sessions. Her background is in information literacy, student engagement in learning and library services for international students. She has been involved in information literacy assessment for the library and the institution. She is particularly interested in researching the role the library plays in improving self-regulation, self-efficacy and metacognitive skills for international students in higher education studying outside of their countries of origin.

Jered Borup

Jered Borup is an Associate Professor in George Mason University’s Division of Learning Technologies. He also serves as the College of Education and Human Development’s Co-director of Digital Learning. Prior to earning his Ph.D. at Brigham Young University, Jered taught history at a junior high school for six years in Idaho. His current research interests include developing online learning communities and identifying the support systems learners require to be successful in online and blended environments. A full list of his publications can be found at https://sites.google.com/site/jeredborup/.