Correlates of help-seeking among college students were examined. In the first study (N = 612) , college students' help-seeking tendencies, given the prospect of poor performance, were (a) directly related to their rated likelihood of engaging in instrumental achievement activities, (b) directly related to persistent global self-esteem, and (c) inversely related to students' perceptions that seeking help is threatening. In Study 2 (N = 541) , help seeking was directly related to the use of cognitive, metacognitive, and resource management learning strategies. Study 3 (N = 386) replicated the results of Study 2 and also found that correlations between help seeking and learning strategy use were unchanged when controlling for individual differences in the perceived threat to self-esteem posed by help seeking. Evidence from all three studies is consistent with viewing help seeking in an academic context as an achievement-related rather than as a dependent behavior.

It is almost inevitable that learners will occasionally judge themselves inadequate to master the increasingly complex demands placed on them (Rosen, 1983). For example, almost all of the college students in one recent study reported that they could have used assistance with their courses or study skills during a typical term (Knapp & Karabenick, 1988). However, the recognition of inadequacy often fails to translate into remedial behavior; that is, many students never seek the requisite help to overcome what are often surmountable deficiencies (Ames & Lau, 1982; Friedlander, 1980; Karabenick & Knapp, 1988b; Knapp & Karabenick, 1988).

Determining the factors that prevent full use of available aid in a variety of contexts, and the help-seeking process itself, has been the subject of considerable research during the past...