Differentiated Avoidance of Academic Help Sources in the University Context: The Role of Goal Structure, Achievement Goals, and Academic Help-Seeking Threat.

Although many support services exist at universities (tutoring, remedial courses, etc.) and are recognized as effective in promoting academic success, a large number of students choose not to use them. In the literature, a frequently proposed explanation is that academic help-seeking can pose a threat to learners’ competence image or sense of autonomy, thereby leading to avoidance of such behaviors. Previous research has mainly adopted a person-centered approach, identifying learner profiles based on associations between different levels of perceived threat and help-seeking behaviors (e.g., avoidance of help, preferred source types, adaptive or opportunistic help-seeking goals). However, these approaches remain essentially descriptive. The association of these dimensions related to help-seeking provides little insight into what learners are actually likely to do in a given situation. Indeed, while some profiles indicate high overall avoidance, they still show a preference for certain help sources when imagining themselves in a help-seeking situation. This difficulty in anticipating concrete behaviors is even more pronounced in the university context: results regarding students’ preferred help sources and their relationship with other help-seeking dimensions remain difficult to interpret. Moreover, most studies focus on the immediate classroom context, focusing on interactions with peers or teachers. However, help-seeking behaviors at university can be part of a broader and less immediate environment, including both the use of formal institutional services (tutoring, remedial courses, etc.) and resources outside the university environment (private lessons, help from friends and family, use of artificial intelligence, etc.). The present study aims to deepen the understanding of help-seeking avoidance by combining this dimension with different help sources, i.e., by specifically examining avoidance according to each source type. This approach allows us to relate these differentiated measures to the perceived threat associated with help-seeking. Furthermore, it proposes a model in which the perceived goal structure of study influences personal achievement goals, which in turn are associated with perceived threat. The latter could lead to selective or generalized avoidance of help-seeking, depending on the source. This research builds on recent advances in the study of goal structure and achievement goals, which have refined measurement instruments. It uses a multidimensional scale of mastery goal structure based on the TARGET framework (Ames, 1992) and distinguishes performance goal structures in terms of approach and avoidance. Additionally, personal performance achievement goals are differentiated between normative and appearance objectives. The use of recent and theoretically refined measurement tools allows for a better understanding of the motivational configurations specific to the university environment, while providing a more precise analysis of the relationships between the measured variables. Finally, the study combines a cross-sectional approach, comparing students according to their academic seniority, and a longitudinal approach, following first-year students. The objective is to examine, first, the extent to which prolonged exposure to a university motivational climate influences the formation of personal achievement goals, which in turn influence perceived threat and selective or generalized help avoidance, and second, to assess the strength of the relationships between the model's variables. The expected results should provide a better understanding of how motivational and contextual factors interact to inhibit or promote help-seeking in the university context. By identifying the conditions under which some students develop selective or generalized avoidance, this study could contribute to the design of more appropriate support systems and the adjustment of motivational environments to encourage help-seeking behaviors.