Girls at high school who seek support for homework or assignments online might be harming their mental health, Sue Osborne writes.
A recent study published in the Australian Journal of Psychology found girls who turned to friends via social media for help instead of asking teachers, friends or family for academic advice in person, were more likely to suffer depression and anxiety.
In the study by researchers from Western Sydney, Macquarie and Wollongong universities, 186 girls aged 12–15 were presented with four typical academic scenarios which could lead to stress, such as difficulties keeping up with homework or not understanding homework.
Participants were asked to rate their likelihood of seeking support from either family, friends or digital sources.
Those who indicated they were going to seek help from informal online sources showed higher levels of anxiety and depression.
While on face value asking online friends for help with homework might sound positive, this research suggests the behaviour may not always be beneficial.
Dr Erin Mackenzie, Senior Lecturer in Educational Psychology and STEM at Western Sydney University and study lead, said, “an implication of these findings is that it is important for adolescents to keep channels of communication open with their parents, and ideally face-to-face with their friends”.
The girls tended to use texts/iMessages, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook and Kik. [The researchers noted these were most popular when the research was taking place – other platforms such as Tik Tok may have taken over now].
Dr Anne McMaugh, Senior Lecturer in Educational Psychology at Macquarie University and a study co-author, said, “Students may be particularly vulnerable if they are seeking informal support online and not receiving the support they need”.
“There may be a role for teachers to help students by monitoring their load of daily stressors and teaching them strategies to manage these stressors. When giving students academic work or homework, teachers could match it with help-seeking and support strategies,” Dr McMaugh said.
“We can reduce academic stress with regular ‘check ins’ with students and frequent feedback intervals. Keep an eye on those who may be more vulnerable to academic stress, such as those with a history of anxiety and those with more worry about ‘getting it 100% right’ all the time, as these ‘perfectionistic’ characteristics can be associated with stress and anxiety.”
What to look out for
Dr McMaugh also advised teachers can look out for students who do not appear to have close friendships or close peer relationships at school. These girls may not benefit as much from the peer-to- peer learning and supportive help-giving and sharing that occurs in typical friendly relationships.
However, teachers might also look out for students who show too much dependency on ‘unhelpful’ forms of support seeking such as simply asking for the answers or relying on friends a lot in class for help and guidance.
“This might indicate a range of other possible concerns such as lack of understanding of the content (a learning concern) or feelings of anxiety about whether they understood or got the ‘right answer’,” she said.
“In other cases, learning difficulties, hearing or communication difficulties might mean students rely on support from peers in class to interpret teacher instructions.
“Teachers need to be aware of their students’ academic and learning behaviours, as well as signs of anxiety and depression in adolescents.
“For example, in terms of academic behaviours such as support seeking, teachers could survey students in a friendly manner about how they seek help for their academic work and homework tasks. This would help them understand the ‘demands’ on mum and dad and any peer-to-peer or online strategies the girls might be using.”
If students need help frequently, it may suggest that more explicit teaching and task practice is needed in class time before setting homework.
Where to find help
There are resources designed to help teachers deal with anxiety and depression among students, including the BeYou resources. Academic stressors will be felt more keenly by students with existing mental health disorders and these students may need more explicit teaching and scaffolded tasks that are broken down into manageable steps, Dr McMaugh said.
“Encouraging students to stay connected with positive forms of informal support such as their friends is an important stress management strategy; helping adolescents identify other sources of formal support such as HeadSpace is also a great idea. We need to offer adolescents several examples of positive places to seek support to prevent unhelpful or problematic forms of support seeking.”
Dr McMaugh said teaching students to cope with stressors should not be left to the senior years of schooling, as social and emotional resilience can be developed and continues to grow throughout the years of schooling.
“Class time teaching strategies can also include reminders about how to ask for help and support.
“The teacher is best placed to help students understand their tasks so by ‘normalising’ help seeking and providing time and places to seek support from teachers is a great way to establish healthy support seeking behaviours.
“Homework support clubs, devoting 15 minutes in classes several times a week for students to start homework tasks and come and seek help in class time is also a great way to encourage support seeking from a teacher.
“We can also train our students to become ‘self-aware’ of their own stress or support needs. We can teach them about their own ‘mindsets’ and encourage positive self-talk. We can teach self-regulation and self-monitoring strategies, so that homework and other tasks are broken down into a careful self-regulatory cycle of steps.
“Teachers can build self-regulation steps into their task by scaffolding the academic task around these phases.
“It is important in cases of mental health concerns to keep an observational record of what the teacher sees or hears or notices about the student’s behaviours, thoughts and emotions as well as their social behaviours.
“The BeYou website contains a great observational record keeping form. The observational record can be shared with the school welfare support team and teachers should always seek help immediately when a student’s concerns start to interfere or compete with their day-to-day ability to function and complete the routine tasks that any child or adolescent should be able to do,” Dr McMaugh said.
References
Erin Mackenzie, Anne McMaugh, Penny Van Bergen & Roberto H. Parada (2023) Adolescent girls’ academic support-seeking, depression, and anxiety: the mediating role of digital support-seeking, Australian Journal of Psychology, 75:1, 2170279, DOI: 10.1080/00049530.2023.2170279
Mackenzie, E., McMaugh, A., & Van Bergen, P. (2020). Digital Support Seeking in Adolescent Girls: A Qualitative Study of Affordances and Limitations. Cyberpsychology,