The Importance of Help Seeking in Community Colleges

Every day after my Education Psychology class, without fail, my professor put up a slide saying in big, bold letters, “Come to my office hours! Monday and Wednesday from 11 a.m.–1 p.m.” She explained that this was our time to ask her questions or just chat—no appointment or knocking needed—and emphasized that she truly wanted to see us there. I took her up on this offer and went to office hours every week, at first to talk through material for the course and later on to discuss life at school, my plans for the summers, and even post-graduate employment.

As an intern at CCRC, I am learning that many college students don’t know how to seek help, are afraid to seek help, or have no experience with help seeking. This may be especially true at community colleges, which enroll more first-generation students, low-income students, and students from minoritized racial and ethnic backgrounds than most four-year institutions.

Why is seeking help important?

Studies have shown that seeking help from formal sources such as counselors and advisors and informal sources such as family and friends leads to improved student learning and increased self-efficacy. Students also receive higher grades when they ask for help from instructors who are receptive to their requests. Research demonstrates that as students’ internal motivation increases, so does their ability to find resources for help.

Seeking help involves several steps, whereby students learn cognitive, social, and emotional competencies, and is considered an effective self-regulation strategy that promotes academic success. Students must decide whether a problem exists, whether they need help, where and how to get it, and how to use it to guide their success.

The mental health crisis on college campuses in the U.S. has elevated the need for institutions to recognize students’ needs, respond promptly, and provide the necessary resources to promote student well-being. However, there are still knowledge gaps around the mental health of community college students and how it relates to their broader need for guidance and support.

Are students seeking help?

Despite all the benefits of seeking help, too few students are accessing resources to support their academic growth. On average, 22% of community college students who have been enrolled for over a semester report never meeting with an advisor.

In addition to academic support, students are struggling with their mental health and need help. A study looking at the mental health of community college students found that more than 50% of students met the criteria for one or more mental health conditions. Rates of mental health challenges (including anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation) and therapy use are significantly higher among community college students than among their peers at four-year institutions.

Though research identifying the prevalence of mental health challenges among different racial groups in community college is limited, one study with four-year students found that 45% of White students seek treatment, but only a third of Latinx students, 25% of Black students, and 22% of Asian students seek help. Following COVID and the increase in online classes, these numbers have likely risen.

Why aren’t students seeking help?

Community college students may face many barriers to help seeking, such as difficulty accessing resources, fear of showing weakness, lack of time, lack of diversity among counselors, and cultural norms about seeking help. Community college students find it more difficult to seek psychological and academic help than when they were in high school, and college services work differently: students are expected to diagnose their own needs to identify which support service to access and find and use services on their own. Also, many students decide to access help only once their needs become acute.

Additionally, students often feel that seeking help shows weakness and neediness. For racially minoritized students, this is made more challenging by stereotype threat, the idea that students will be judged in a way that will reinforce negative stereotypes about their social group. This creates tension between the need for help with their troubles and the desire to protect their self-image.

Students also report not accessing college mental health support resources because of a lack of diversity among counselors. According to the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors, only 10% of counselors identify as Black, 8% as Asian, and 7% as Latinx. Considering that students of color face disproportionate stressors on college campuses, the lack of counselors of color is a serious problem.

Since COVID, it has been even harder for students to access help in online environments. Community college students interviewed for a forthcoming report by the Postsecondary Teaching with Technology Collaborative (the Collaborative) identified several barriers to seeking help in online courses, among them discouraging previous experiences and fear of being perceived negatively by peers. Students also noted that some instructors are unresponsive, inconsistent with emails, and inattentive to students’ personal circumstances.

What does research tell us about possible solutions?

Several CCRC projects explore what institutions can do first to acknowledge the importance of seeking help and then to encourage students to seek help. In addition to the Collaborative’s research on help seeking in online courses, CCRC has examined how colleges are trying to create a welcoming and supportive environment through the Caring Campus project. CCRC’s research on advising highlights the importance of advisors reaching out to students when they’re struggling and of case management models through which advisors get to know students and help them navigate college. Also, findings from a CCRC study can help colleges understand whom first-generation students turn to for support and how colleges can organize their services to facilitate help seeking. Other studies have shown the importance of providing more counselors of color whom students can connect with.

My professor is a classic example of an instructor who thoroughly cares about her students and wants to see them succeed—she’s the one who helped me find CCRC and apply for their internship program. I am so thankful she emphasized the importance of office hours and made herself open and available so I could gain valuable work experience before graduating.