ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Performance Science
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Drive to Thrive: Nurturing Growth, Facilitating Resilience, and Learning From Nature for the Wellbeing of Artists and AthletesView all 8 articles
Associations between social support and help-seeking intention regarding music performance anxiety among Chinese music students: mediation via resilience and self-compassion
Provisionally accepted
- 1Xihua University, Chengdu, China
- 2Guangxi Minzu University, Nanning, China
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Music performance anxiety (MPA) is a common challenge in higher music education, often undermining students' confidence, performance quality, and mental health. However, research on help-seeking related to MPA among music students remains limited. Social support is known to buffer stress and promote help-seeking, while self-compassion and resilience may serve as key psychological mechanisms linking social support to help-seeking intentions. This study examined how social support relates to both formal and informal help-seeking intentions regarding MPA among Chinese music students, focusing on the mediating roles of self-compassion and resilience. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted in March 2025 among 684 students from Sichuan, China. Validated scales measured social support, self-compassion, resilience, and help-seeking intentions. Mediation analyses were performed using structural equation modeling. The present study found that social support was not directly related to formal help-seeking intention, but its indirect effects through resilience and self-compassion were significant, indicating full mediation. For informal help-seeking, social support had both direct and indirect effects via resilience and self-compassion, suggesting partial mediation. The findings indicate that social support facilitates help-seeking through both self-compassion and resilience. Strengthening peer and teacher support systems, incorporating self-compassion and resilience training into performance pedagogy, may enhance students' readiness to seek help. Future longitudinal research should verify these pathways and examine actual help-seeking behaviors.
Keywords: help-seeking intention, music performance anxiety, resilience, self-compassion, social support
Received: 14 Jan 2026; Accepted: 28 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Sun, Zhong, Zhou, Li, Liu and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yanchang Liu
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