{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,21]],"date-time":"2026-09-21T06:01:58Z","timestamp":1789970518113,"version":"4.0.1"},"reference-count":32,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,21]],"date-time":"2026-09-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1789948800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Psychol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Academic help-seeking is a self-regulatory academic behavior that may be shaped by students\u2019 evaluative experiences and beliefs about their academic capability. This study examined whether academic anxiety statistically mediates the association between academic social comparison orientation and adaptive academic help-seeking, and whether academic self-efficacy moderates the association between academic anxiety and adaptive academic help-seeking among university students.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>A cross-sectional online survey was conducted with 218 undergraduate students from two Saudi universities. The main model was analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with 5,000 bootstrap resamples.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Academic social comparison orientation was positively associated with academic anxiety (\u03b2\u202f=\u202f0.374,\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u202f&amp;lt;\u202f0.001), and academic anxiety was negatively associated with adaptive academic help-seeking (\u03b2\u202f=\u202f\u22120.234,\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u202f=\u202f0.001). Academic social comparison orientation also showed a negative direct association with adaptive academic help-seeking (\u03b2\u202f=\u202f\u22120.192,\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u202f=\u202f0.004). The indirect effect through academic anxiety was negative and statistically significant (\u03b2\u202f=\u202f\u22120.087,\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u202f=\u202f0.005), consistent with partial statistical mediation. Academic self-efficacy moderated the anxiety\u2013help-seeking association (\u03b2\u202f=\u202f0.153,\n                      <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u202f=\u202f0.010), with the positive interaction indicating that the negative association between academic anxiety and adaptive academic help-seeking became weaker as academic self-efficacy increased.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The findings suggest that academic anxiety partially statistically mediated the association between stronger academic social comparison orientation and lower adaptive academic help-seeking, whereas academic self-efficacy statistically moderated the negative association between academic anxiety and adaptive academic help-seeking, such that this association was weaker at higher levels of academic self-efficacy. Given the cross-sectional design, the findings should be interpreted as statistical associations consistent with the proposed theoretical model rather than as evidence of causal effects.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1872436","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,21]],"date-time":"2026-09-21T05:35:44Z","timestamp":1789968944000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Academic social comparison orientation and adaptive academic help-seeking among university students: academic anxiety as a mediator and academic self-efficacy as a moderator"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Bandar Salah","family":"Almailabi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Education, Islamic University of Madinah","place":["Madinah, Saudi Arabia"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,21]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1801103","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1801103","article-title":"Psychometric validation and cross-language invariance of the Arabic INCOM short form using PLS-SEM","volume":"17","author":"Almailabi","year":"2026","journal-title":"Front. Psychol."},{"key":"ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"370","DOI":"10.18863\/pgy.1124868","article-title":"Analysis of studies about academic anxiety: a thematic review","volume":"15","author":"B\u00fclb\u00fcl","year":"2023","journal-title":"Psikiyatride G\u00fcncel Yakla\u015f\u0131mlar \/ Current Approaches in Psychiatry"},{"key":"ref3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"11","DOI":"10.3389\/feduc.2019.00011","article-title":"Predicting student depression with measures of general and academic anxieties","volume":"4","author":"Cassady","year":"2019","journal-title":"Front. Educ."},{"key":"ref4","volume-title":"Statistical power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences","author":"Cohen","year":"1988"},{"key":"ref5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1149","DOI":"10.3758\/BRM.41.4.1149","article-title":"Statistical power analyses using G*power 3.1: tests for correlation and regression analyses","volume":"41","author":"Faul","year":"2009","journal-title":"Behav. Res. Methods"},{"key":"ref6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"146","DOI":"10.5539\/ies.v8n3p146","article-title":"Students\u2019 perceptions of the goal structure in mathematics classrooms: relations with goal orientations, mathematics anxiety, and help-seeking behavior","volume":"8","author":"Federici","year":"2015","journal-title":"Int. Educ. Stud."},{"key":"ref7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"117","DOI":"10.1177\/001872675400700202","article-title":"A theory of social comparison processes","volume":"7","author":"Festinger","year":"1954","journal-title":"Hum. Relat."},{"key":"ref8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"145","DOI":"10.1080\/15305058.2024.2317758","article-title":"Identification and validation of severity standards for the academic anxiety scale","volume":"24","author":"Finch","year":"2024","journal-title":"Int. J. Test."},{"key":"ref9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1037\/edu0000725","article-title":"Academic help-seeking and achievement of postsecondary students: a meta-analytic investigation","volume":"115","author":"Fong","year":"2023","journal-title":"J. Educ. Psychol."},{"key":"ref10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"129","DOI":"10.1037\/0022-3514.76.1.129","article-title":"Individual differences in social comparison: development of a scale of social comparison orientation","volume":"76","author":"Gibbons","year":"1999","journal-title":"J. Pers. Soc. Psychol."},{"key":"ref11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"468","DOI":"10.1037\/abn0000671","article-title":"Social comparisons and social anxiety in daily life: an experience-sampling approach","volume":"130","author":"Goodman","year":"2021","journal-title":"J. Abnorm. Psychol."},{"key":"ref12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"87","DOI":"10.18800\/educacion.202002.005","article-title":"Relaci\u00f3n entre autoeficacia acad\u00e9mica, rendimiento y sintomatolog\u00eda ansiosa y depresiva en adultos emergentes universitarios","volume":"29","author":"Guti\u00e9rrez Garc\u00eda","year":"2020","journal-title":"Educaci\u00f3n"},{"key":"ref13","volume-title":"A primer on Partial least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM)","author":"Hair","year":"2022"},{"key":"ref14","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2","DOI":"10.1108\/EBR-11-2018-0203","article-title":"When to use and how to report the results of PLS-SEM","volume":"31","author":"Hair","year":"2019","journal-title":"Eur. Bus. Rev."},{"key":"ref15","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"115","DOI":"10.1007\/s11747-014-0403-8","article-title":"A new criterion for assessing discriminant validity in variance-based structural equation modeling","volume":"43","author":"Henseler","year":"2015","journal-title":"J. Acad. Mark. Sci."},{"key":"ref16","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"192","DOI":"10.3390\/bs15020192","article-title":"Academic anxiety in Spanish higher education: a systematic review","volume":"15","author":"Idoiaga-Mondragon","year":"2025","journal-title":"Behavioral Sciences"},{"key":"ref17","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"101","DOI":"10.1080\/15305058.2017.1398166","article-title":"ITC guidelines for translating and adapting tests (second edition)","volume":"18","year":"2017","journal-title":"Int. J. Test."},{"key":"ref18","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"569","DOI":"10.1037\/0022-0663.96.3.569","article-title":"Perceived achievement goal structure and college student help seeking","volume":"96","author":"Karabenick","year":"2004","journal-title":"J. Educ. Psychol."},{"key":"ref19","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"221","DOI":"10.1037\/0022-0663.83.2.221","article-title":"Relationship of academic help seeking to the use of learning strategies and other instrumental achievement behavior in college students","volume":"83","author":"Karabenick","year":"1991","journal-title":"J. Educ. Psychol."},{"key":"ref20","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.4018\/ijec.2015100101","article-title":"Common method bias in PLS-SEM: a full collinearity assessment approach","volume":"11","author":"Kock","year":"2015","journal-title":"Int. J. e-Collab."},{"key":"ref21","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"637","DOI":"10.3390\/bs13080637","article-title":"College student\u2019s academic help-seeking behavior: a systematic literature review","volume":"13","author":"Li","year":"2023","journal-title":"Behavioral Sciences"},{"key":"ref22","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"640","DOI":"10.1002\/cpp.2452","article-title":"Exploring the association of social comparison with depression and anxiety: a systematic review and meta-analysis","volume":"27","author":"McCarthy","year":"2020","journal-title":"Clin. Psychol. Psychother."},{"key":"ref23","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"664","DOI":"10.1080\/00313831.2017.1306796","article-title":"Gender fairness in self-efficacy? A Rasch-based validity study of the general academic self-efficacy scale (GASE)","volume":"62","author":"Nielsen","year":"2018","journal-title":"Scand. J. Educ. Res."},{"key":"ref24","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"543","DOI":"10.3102\/00346543066004543","article-title":"Self-efficacy beliefs in academic settings","volume":"66","author":"Pajares","year":"1996","journal-title":"Rev. Educ. Res."},{"key":"ref25","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"42","DOI":"10.1186\/s40594-024-00501-7","article-title":"Academic social comparison: a promising new target to reduce fear of negative evaluation in large-enrollment college science courses","volume":"11","author":"Pigart","year":"2024","journal-title":"Int. J. STEM Educ."},{"key":"ref26","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"879","DOI":"10.1037\/0021-9010.88.5.879","article-title":"Common method biases in behavioral research: a critical review of the literature and recommended remedies","volume":"88","author":"Podsakoff","year":"2003","journal-title":"J. Appl. Psychol."},{"key":"ref27","first-page":"276","author":"Purwanti","year":"2020"},{"key":"ref28","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"762","DOI":"10.1177\/1094428109332834","article-title":"A tale of three perspectives: examining post hoc statistical techniques for detection and correction of common method variance","volume":"12","author":"Richardson","year":"2009","journal-title":"Organ. Res. Methods"},{"key":"ref29","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"329","DOI":"10.1037\/0022-0663.89.2.329","article-title":"Should I ask for help? the role of motivation and attitudes in adolescents\u2019 help seeking in math class","volume":"89","author":"Ryan","year":"1997","journal-title":"J. Educ. Psychol."},{"key":"ref30","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2322","DOI":"10.1108\/EJM-02-2019-0189","article-title":"Predictive model assessment in PLS-SEM: guidelines for using PLSpredict","volume":"53","author":"Shmueli","year":"2019","journal-title":"Eur. J. Mark."},{"key":"ref31","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"365","DOI":"10.1353\/csd.2019.0035","article-title":"Effects of undergraduates\u2019 academic self-efficacy on their academic help-seeking behaviors: the mediating effect of professional commitment and the moderating effect of gender","volume":"60","author":"Xie","year":"2019","journal-title":"J. Coll. Stud. Dev."},{"key":"ref32","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"102647","DOI":"10.1016\/j.lindif.2025.102647","article-title":"The influence of competitive and cooperative classroom climate on middle school students\u2019 academic help seeking","volume":"119","author":"Yang","year":"2025","journal-title":"Learn. Individ. Differ."}],"container-title":["Frontiers in Psychology"],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1872436\/full","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,21]],"date-time":"2026-09-21T05:35:45Z","timestamp":1789968945000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1872436\/full"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,21]]},"references-count":32,"alternative-id":["10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1872436"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1872436","relation":{},"ISSN":["1664-1078"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1664-1078","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,21]]},"article-number":"1872436"}}