Is Academic Self-Efficacy Enough to Activate Instrumental Peer Help-Seeking?

Abstract

Academic self-efficacy (ASE) is posited asa strong determinant of adaptive academic behaviors. However, such theoretical assumption has yielded largely inconsistent empirical support when instrumental peer help-seeking is considered. This study tested 12 hypotheses, which mainly expressed that self-efficacy for self- and co-regulated learning (SESCoRL) and the selfefficacy for peer help-seeking (SEPHS) were proximal predictors of instrumental peer help-seeking. A total of 403 college students responded to a digitized self-report questionnaire. The results of structural equation modeling (SEM) with mediation in AMOS supported most of the hypotheses. The link between ASE and instrumental peer help-seeking was indeed a distant one as SESCoRL and SEPHS were found to be missing links in the chain. The results of this study could inform teachers' motivational strategies for enhancing complex self-efficacy beliefs and building learning and life skills of college students for the 21st century.