An exploration of academic help-seeking and help-giving from a cultural perspective

As higher education institutions enroll students from increasingly diverse cultural backgrounds, there is a growing need to understand how different students navigate their own and others’ academic challenges. In this regard, academic help-seeking and academic help-giving—the acts of seeking support for academic difficulties and providing academic support to others, respectively—are two interrelated learning behaviors that are essential for overcoming obstacles during college. However, the role of culture in these behaviors remains underexplored. This research investigated how undergraduate students’ attitudes and behaviors surrounding academic help-seeking and help-giving are informed by their cultural perspectives across two studies. The first study used surveys to examine how individualism and collectivism are associated with undergraduate students’ self-reported willingness to seek and give academic help. Findings revealed that specific elements of individualism and collectivism predicted students’ engagement in help-seeking and help-giving in distinct ways. The second study used interviews to explore how undergraduate students of European and East Asian descent experience academic help-seeking and help-giving from a cultural perspective. Findings revealed both broad cultural influences on help-related behaviors and the personalized ways students navigate these influences in their educational journeys. Together, these results point to the critical role of culture in shaping students’ engagement in academic help-seeking and help-giving interactions, thus offering novel insights for educators aiming to foster these behaviors in higher education settings.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educational Psychology

Grantor

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2025

Author dc:creator

• Jeng, Amos

Contributors dc:contributor

• Perry, Michelle
• Bosch, Nigel
• Davila, Liv T
• Ruedas-Gracia, Nidia

• academic help-seeking
• academic help-giving
• culture
• individualism
• collectivism
• surveys
• interviews
• college student

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2025 Amos Jeng

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129389

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F129389