Brief Research Report: Sense of Belonging and Academic Help-Seeking as Self-Regulated Learning

Academic help-seeking is a self-regulatory strategy that can have an important influence on students’ learning and achievement. The primary goal of the present study was to investigate whether college students’ sense of belonging could be used to understand their academic help-seeking. In addition, two aspects of motivation, self-efficacy for self-regulated learning and utility value, were examined as predictors of adaptive and expedient help-seeking strategies within an integrative model. College students (N = 307) completed two online self-report surveys that assessed sense of belonging, motivation, and help-seeking. Results of structural equation modeling showed that sense of belonging significantly predicted reported use of adaptive help-seeking strategies, even when accounting for students’ motivation. Self-efficacy for self-regulated learning also positively predicted adaptive help-seeking strategies, whereas utility value negatively predicted expedient help-seeking strategies. Findings support the conclusion that college students’ perceptions of their social contexts inform if and how they seek help with their learning.