Emerging adults’ help seeking from friends: the role of perceived goal structures and implications for adjustment

The current study investigated emerging adults’ help seeking from friends to deal with academic difficulties, and the mediating role of this help seeking in the associations between perceived goal structures and academic and social adjustment among 300 emerging adults (N = 300; M_age = 22.28; 50% female). Structural equation modeling results confirmed that emerging adults’ help seeking from friends (i.e., adaptive or avoiding) mediated the effects of perceived goal structures (i.e., mastery or performance) on academic and social adjustment. Emerging adults who perceived greater emphasis on mastery were more likely to seek adaptive help, whereas those who perceived greater emphasis on performance were more likely to avoid seeking help from friends. Further, adaptive help seeking was positively related to friendship satisfaction and academic engagement, while avoiding help seeking was negatively related to friendship satisfaction and positively related to anxious solitude. The findings emphasize the importance of mastery-oriented environment to foster emerging adults’ adaptive help seeking and academic and social adjustment in college.