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

Abstract

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.