Empirical Evidence for Evaluation Anxiety and Expectancy-Value Theory for Help Sources

Abstract

Expectancy-Value Theory for Help Sources (EVT-HS) states that whether or not students seek help from a particular source is determined by their perceived expectation that there will be help available, and the perceived value for the help from that source. This paper provides initial empirical validation for EVT-HS, while also introducing and providing support for costs of seeking help from a particular help source impacting intention to seek help. Our survey experiment shows that raising perceived expectancies and values for a help source significantly predicts a student’s intention to seek help. Our results also show that evaluation anxiety, as a potential negative value, inversely predicts intentions to seek help from a particular source.