Fostering help-seeking in early childhood: The role of teachers’ familiarity and response quality

Young children mostly seek help from teachers in early care and education settings, yet little is known about the factors influencing their help-seeking expectations within teacher-child interactions. This study examined the help-seeking expectations of Han Chinese children aged 5–6 years (N = 90, 45 boys) from Hangzhou, East China, focusing on teachers’ familiarity and response quality. The results indicated that young children were more likely to expect to seek help from familiar teachers, particularly those who previously responded positively. In contrast, young children were hesitant to expect to seek help from unfamiliar teachers, regardless of their response quality. These results suggest that preschool children flexibly form help-seeking expectations based on teachers’ familiarity and response quality, prioritizing familiarity over response quality. The implications of these findings emphasize the importance of fostering positive and trusting relationships in early childhood education to promote adaptive help-seeking strategies.