Academic help-seeking as a learning strategy can influence academic achievement. Indeed, seeking help when needed is considered a self-regulated learning strategy that should be taken into account from the educational perspective. In this study, we review twenty-five articles published over the last 10 years that have analysed academic help-seeking in adolescents or university students. The aims of this review are to describe the relationship between academic help-seeking and other sociodemographic, educational, and psychosocial variables, and to evaluate the instruments that are used to assess academic help-seeking. Our results show that there is a lack of consensus on the structure of help-seeking as a construct. Moreover, the role of sex and age is unclear, and there is little replication in the correlational models. Further research is needed to better define the construct and compare the variables that influence academic help-seeking at different stages of education.

Many studies have shown the negative impact of lockdowns on adolescents, but there is less evidence on how they are affected by other stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, and, especially, whether there are any differences between early and late adolescence. The current study focuses on the frustration felt by adolescents because of the severe COVID-19 restrictions in a non-lockdown situation. We aimed to (a) assess the role of maturity and two personality traits (emotional stability and extraversion) in predicting their frustration, and (b) compare the levels of frustration, depressive symptoms, and life satisfaction in older and younger adolescents. The sample of older adolescents was also compared with a paired sample of the same age collected in 2018, before the pandemic. The results suggest that maturity, extraversion and emotional stability are predictors of frustration in both older and younger adolescents, although older adolescents reported higher levels of frustration and depressive symptoms, and lower levels of life satisfaction. Older adolescents also reported higher levels of depressive symptoms than adolescents of the same age before the pandemic. These results show the negative impact of the pandemic, especially on older adolescents, and the important role of maturity and some personality traits in predicting their frustration.

Dropout is a problematic issue in education due to its high prevalence and impact on students and society. In fact, it can limit students’ future options, and it involves a substantial cost for public budgets in most countries. This is not an easy problem to solve, since student dropout is a complex decisional process involving such factors as personal and contextual characteristics, educational variables, and psychosocial aspects. Very few studies have examined whether sociodemographic and psycho-educational variables affect educational dropout at different academic levels. For this reason, the present study aims to provide a better understanding of the role of several variables (age, academic results, gender, sexual orientation, academic help-seeking, academic self-efficacy, and planning as a strategy to cope with academic stress) in educational dropout thoughts in a sample of 759 students resident in Spain (age: M = 22.91, 74.0% women). Regression analyses showed that dropout thoughts were significantly predicted by academic results, planning, sexual orientation, academic self-efficacy, and academic help-seeking. Agreements and discrepancies with previous research are discussed. The results of the current study can be used by educators, policy makers and institutions to develop programmes to reduce student dropout by enhancing self-regulated learning strategies.

Although academic help-seeking is an important variable in the academic context, as it is related to academic achievement, college adjustment and teacher support, among other variables, no instruments evaluate it in the Spanish adult population. The main goal of the current study was to develop an adaptation of the Academic Help-Seeking Scale for the Spanish adult population with suitable psychometric properties. The sample consisted of 536 adults with an average age of 24.98 (SD = 8.55). The exploratory factor analysis in the first half of the sample suggested that only one factor was underlying the data, and the confirmatory factor analysis in the second half showed that the factor structure replicated in a different sample. The results suggest that this adaptation has appropriate psychometric properties, and adequate reliability and convergent validity. We also found the expected relationships with gender and academic achievement. Therefore, this instrument may be useful for researchers and education professionals who need to assess this behaviour in adults so that they can help them improve their academic performance. The study also contributes to a better understanding of academic help-seeking as an adaptative learning strategy and the variables it is related to.

During adolescence, academic self-concept may be influenced by key social factors such as functional support and social reputation. Understanding how these factors interact, particularly to gender, is essential for promoting school well-being. This study delves into the intricate relationships between functional social support, social reputation, and academic self-concept among Spanish adolescents. It places particular emphasis on exploring potential gender differences. The sample comprised 160 adolescents (aged 14 to 17, Mage=15.06, 54.4% girls) from two public high schools in Tarragona, Spain. The instruments used were the Self-Concept Questionnaire (AUDIM), the Functional Social Support Questionnaire (DUKE-UNC), and the Reputation Enhancement Scale. Statistical analyses involved descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlation, and multiple regression analyses. Our findings showed that academic self-concept was positively associated with functional social support across the general sample and within gender-specific groups. Gender differences emerged regarding the influence of social reputation on academic self-concept: girls displayed significant positive relationships with conforming self-perception and reputational self-perception, but boys displayed a significant relationship only with non-conforming self-perception. These findings highlight the key role of functional social support in shaping academic self-concept. They also reveal gender-specific effects of social reputation, highlighting the influence of gender norms on adolescents’ self-perceptions.