The role of personality in motivational regulation and academic procrastination

This study explores the role of the motivational self-regulation in academic procrastination under the personality framework. Therefore, the aims of the study were to investigate: (a) the role of personality dimensions in the self-regulation of motivation; (b) the role of self-regulation of motivation in procrastination; and (c) the mediating role of the self-regulation of motivation. The participants were 274 university students (M?=?21 years). The Big Five traits explained from 6% to 17% variance of the individual motivational regulation strategies (MRSs). Both personality (conscientiousness) and the MRS (environmental control) were significant predictors of academic procrastination. Conscientiousness, agreeableness, and intellect showed an indirect effect on reducing academic procrastination, mediated through the strategy of environmental control, thus additionally suggesting the important role of this motivational strategy. Since this strategy can be taught, these findings have a strong practical value.     

Procrastination in a distance university setting

Procrastination, putting off until tomorrow what should have been done today, is a self-regulation failure that is widespread among students. Although plenty of research has emerged regarding academic procrastination, hardly any research endeavor regarding procrastination in distance university settings exists. This lack of research is even more astonishing when considering that the demands on self-regulation are higher in distance education settings than in traditional university settings. The present (questionnaire) study was intended to shed light on procrastination in an actual distance university setting by exploring its relationship to grades, learning strategies (e.g., cognitive, meta-cognitive strategies), and life satisfaction in students from a distance university in comparison to students from a traditional university.     

Exploring reasons and consequences of academic procrastination: an interview study

In the present study, we broadly investigated reasons and consequences of academic procrastination. Additionally, we explored whether students seeking help from student counselling services to overcome academic procrastination (counselling group) report more serious reasons and consequences of academic procrastination than students who procrastinate but seek no counselling support (non-counselling group). We conducted standardized interviews with university students (N?=?36, of which 16 belonged to the counselling group) and analysed these using qualitative content analysis and frequency analysis. The reasons and consequences of academic procrastination, each summarized in a separate category system, were manifold. The category systems consisted of 20 main categories in total, subsuming 81 subcategories, of which 32 were inductively developed. The counselling group reported more serious reasons and consequences of academic procrastination than the non-counselling group. Our results suggest considering academic procrastination as a self-regulation failure and contribute to constructing interventions tailored to students’ specific needs.     

Academic procrastination of undergraduates: Low self-efficacy to self-regulate predicts higher levels of procrastination

This article reports two studies exploring the academic procrastination of 456 undergraduates. Study 1 explores the relationships among academic procrastination, self-regulation, academic self-efficacy, self-esteem, and self-efficacy for self-regulation. Results reveal that although other self-variables are related to procrastination, self-efficacy for self-regulation is most predictive of procrastination tendencies. Study 2 examines academic and motivation characteristics of “negative procrastinators,” the undergraduates who are most adversely influenced by procrastination. The 25% of 195 participants in Study 2 who were classified as negative procrastinators had significantly lower GPAs, higher levels of daily and task procrastination, lower predicted and actual class grades, and lower self-efficacy for self-regulation. After controlling for GPA, daily procrastination and self-efficacy for self-regulation significantly predicted the negative impact of procrastination. The article concludes with a discussion of the importance that self-efficacy for self-regulation holds for procrastination research, and with suggestions for practitioners who work with students who are adversely affected by procrastination.     

Exploring the moderating role of well-being on the adaptive link between self-assessment practices and learning achievement

Self-assessment practices can positively impact student learning and achievement. However, less is known about psychological moderators that can influence the impact that self-assessment practice may have on achievement. Integrating the dual processing self-regulation model and the self-assessment cycle framework, this study examined the role of students’ positive well-being in the link between self-assessment practices and domain-specific achievement scores. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses using data from 765 secondary school students revealed that self-assessment practices positively predicted achievement scores. Results also showed that positive well-being moderated the relationship between seeking internal feedback and self-reflection and achievement scores, in that the positive link between such self-assessment practices and achievement was stronger for students who had low or moderate well-being. These findings reinforce the impact of self-assessment on learning and add to the ecological validity of the dual processing self-regulation model. The discussion focuses on how these findings contribute to our understanding of how well-being could influence the adaptive role of internal and cognitive self-assessment practices in student learning. Limitations and future research directions are also discussed.     

Analysis of the relation between academic procrastination, academic rational/irrational beliefs, time preferences to study for exams, and academic achievement: a structural model

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relations between academic rational/irrational beliefs, academic procrastination, and time preferences to study for exams and academic achievement by using the structural equation model. The sample consisted of 281 undergraduate students who filled in questionnaires at the 7-week-long summer course. Students responded to questionnaires assessing their levels of (a) academic procrastination, (b) academic rational/irrational beliefs, and (c) time preferences to study for exams and demographic information sheet. In general, the results showed that rational academic beliefs have a direct impact on academic procrastination and time preferences to study for exams. Academic rational beliefs also have an impact on academic achievement indirectly by mediation of academic procrastination and time preferences to study for exams. The results also showed that academic procrastination has an impact on academic achievement both directly and by mediation of time preferences to study for exams. This study suggested that there is a relation between academic procrastination and rational academic beliefs, which should be addressed further in counseling intervention. Knowledge about the role of irrational academic beliefs and their relations with academic procrastination may assist school/ college counselors to develop interventions for students that suffer from delaying behaviors that negatively affect academic success.     

The effect of phubbing,a behavioral problem,on academic procrastination: The mediating and moderating role of academic self-efficacy

Our preoccupation with smartphones affects our attitudes. Our changing attitudes also create disruptions in our daily routines. Smartphones, the most common technological device we use, have exposed individuals to phubbing behavior. The behavioral problem we define as phubbing causes disruptions and procrastination in our academic responsibilities. In this study, the relationship between phubbing frequency and academic procrastination tendencies of students and the effect of academic self-efficacy on this relationship were performed. For this purpose, in this study, the mediator and moderator role of academic self-efficacy in the relationship between academic procrastination and phubbing was examined. The study group of the research consisted of 518 students in late adolescence from Turkey. 323 (62.4%) of the participants were females and 195 (37.6%) of them were males (Mage = 19.4 years). They completed questionnaires measuring phubbing tendency, academic procrastination, academic self-efficacy, and personal information form. It was found that academic self-efficacy was a partial mediator in the relationship between academic procrastination and phubbing. In addition, academic self-efficacy also had a moderator effect. According to these results, it can be said that the acquisition of academic self-efficacy can reduce the negative effects of phubbing, which is a behavioral problem, and the tendency to academic procrastination.     

How can students’ academic performance in statistics be improved? Testing the influence of social and temporal-self comparison feedback in a web-based training environment

The aim of this study was to examine how social or temporal-self comparison feedback, delivered in real-time in a web-based training environment, could influence the academic performance of students in a statistics examination. First-year psychology students were given the opportunity to train for a statistics examination during a semester by doing online exercises in a web-based training environment. Once connected, students received in real-time either social comparison feedback (their score was compared to the mean score of all first-year students) or temporal-self comparison feedback (their score was compared, week by week, with their own previous score). The fact that students were free to connect to the web-based training environment heightened self-regulation differences such as academic procrastination, which was considered as a moderating variable in this study. Because academic performance was measured, the students’ background in mathematics and statistics was also controlled. Irrespective of the students’ background, the results reveal a positive influence of social comparison feedback on statistics exam performance, but only among students who did not delay doing exercises in the web-based training environment. By contrast, temporal-self comparison feedback did not have any effect on performance. Some recommendations for optimizing the efficacy of web-based training environments can be proposed, taking into account both social comparison feedback and academic procrastination.     

Adolescents’ autonomous functioning and implicit theories of ability as predictors of their school achievement and week-to-week study regulation and well-being

Research on students’ motivation has mainly focused on interpersonal differences rather than on the ongoing, intrapersonal dynamics that forge students’ everyday life. In this five-month longitudinal (diary) study, we recruited a sample of 179 high school students from Greece (35.8% males; M_age = 16.27; SD = 1.02) to investigate through multilevel analyses the ongoing dynamics of students’ motivation. We did so by examining the relation between autonomous functioning and aspects of study regulation (namely, study efforts and procrastination) and well-being (namely, subjective vitality and depressive feelings). After controlling for perceived competence, we found week-to-week autonomous functioning to relate positively to study efforts and subjective vitality and negatively to procrastination and depressive feelings. Interestingly, implicit theories of ability - the degree to which one believes that ability is fixed or amenable - were found to moderate the week-to-week relations of autonomous functioning to study efforts and homework procrastination. In particular, autonomous functioning co-varied positively to study efforts and negatively to homework procrastination only among students who believed that ability is malleable. Also, beliefs that ability is fixed predicted poorer grades, lower mean levels of study efforts, and higher homework procrastination. The results underscore the necessity of taking a more dynamic view when studying motivational phenomena and the importance of jointly considering the implicit theory framework and self-determination theory.     

Academic procrastination and statistics anxiety

Statistics anxiety, which is experienced by as many as 80% of graduate students, has been found to debilitate performance in statistics and research methodology courses. As such, it is likely that statistics anxiety is, in part, responsible for many students delaying enrollment in these courses for as long as possible. Moreover, it is possible that, once enrolled in these courses, students with high levels of statistics anxiety tend to procrastinate on assignments. Thus, the purpose of this study was: (a) to examine the prevalence of procrastination among graduate students, and (b) to investigate the relationship between academic procrastination and six dimensions of statistics anxiety. Participants were 135 graduate students enrolled in three sections of a required introductory-level educational research course at a university in the southeastern part of the USA. Findings revealed that a high percentage of students reported problems with procrastination on writing term papers, studying for examinations, and completing weekly reading assignments. A canonical correlation analysis (R _c1 =.51) revealed that academic procrastination resulting from both fear of failure and task aversiveness was related significantly to worth of statistics, interpretation anxiety, test and class anxiety, computational self-concept, fear of asking for help, and fear of the statistics instructor. Implications for statistics anxiety reduction as a procrastination intervention are discussed.     

Avoiding procrastination through time management: an experimental intervention study

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a short-term time management intervention on procrastination. Procrastination is a serious issue for many students and associated with different negative consequences, such as anxiety or low grades. As procrastination is described as a self-regulatory failure, a training programme focussing on self-regulatory skills might be helpful. We randomly assigned 96 students to a treatment (n?=?47) and a control group (n?=?49). As hypothesised, participants of the control group showed procrastination: they spent more time on a self-selected, important academic task right before the deadline was reached compared to the weeks before. The participants of the treatment group, instead, allocated their work time more equally and did not show procrastination. Therefore, the explored time management intervention prevents from a serious time management problem.     

The role of state and trait motivational regulation for procrastinatory behavior in academic contexts: Insights from two diary studies

Academic procrastination can theoretically be conceptualized as a failure in motivational self-regulation. It can be assumed that besides the mere use of motivational regulation strategies, fitting motivational regulation strategies with the current motivational problem can also have beneficial effects on academic procrastination. As both academic procrastination and motivational regulation can be conceptualized as over time fluctuating and situation-specific behaviors, not only trait, but also state fractions of these constructs have to be considered. To elucidate the interrelations between academic procrastinatory behavior and motivational regulation, we therefore examined trait use, state use, trait fit, and state fit of motivational regulation strategies. To test their relevance for academic procrastinatory behavior, we conducted two longitudinal and situation-specific diary studies with 128 and 218 university students. Results of growth curve modeling indicate that academic procrastinatory behavior varies between persons, declines during exam preparation, and can be reduced by using well-fitting motivational regulation strategies. Specifically, both trait and state strategy fit were negatively associated with academic procrastinatory behavior, while mere strategy use was not.     

Trait procrastination,self-efficacy and achievement goals: the mediation role of boredom coping strategies

Limited research has examined the mediational role of coping strategy in students’ motivation and procrastination. In this study, we examined the relationships among self-efficacy, achievement goals, boredom coping strategies and procrastination with 506 Chinese college students. Data were collected via questionnaires. Structural equation modelling results showed that both self-efficacy and approach goals significantly predicted approach-oriented coping strategies, and avoidance goals significantly predicted avoidance-oriented coping strategies. Among the different types of boredom coping strategies, only behavioural avoidance coping strategy significantly predicted procrastination. Hence, the mediating link was only found between avoidance goals, behavioural avoidance coping strategy and procrastination. Implications of the mediating role of behavioural avoidance coping strategy in the goal-procrastination relationship were further discussed.     

Prokrastination bei Studierenden des Lehramts und der Erziehungswissenschaften

A common phenomenon among university students is procrastination, the dysfunctional postponing of tasks. Based on expectancy-value theory, the present study examined the relations between procrastination and some specific motivational characteristics of university students. A total of 881 German university students of teacher education and educational sciences completed a questionnaire. Results showed that procrastination while studying was negatively related to self-concept, study interest, mastery goal orientation and performance-approach goal orientation, while it was positively associated with work avoidance. Moreover, male students reported higher procrastination than female students. Study interest and work avoidance were the strongest predictors of procrastination. Thus, enhancing students’ positive motivational characteristics could reduce procrastination while studying.     

A longitudinal analysis of the reciprocal relationship between academic procrastination,study satisfaction,and dropout intentions in higher education

Student dropout is a multi-causal process. Different theoretical models on student dropout consider dysfunctional study behavior (e.g., academic procrastination) and low study satisfaction as possible determinants of students’ dropout intentions during their university studies. However, these models neglect contemporary conceptualizations that assume reverse relationships between dropout intentions and other determinants of the dropout process. Until now, empirical evidence on these assumptions is scant. The present three-wave longitudinal study explored the reciprocal relationships between academic procrastination, study satisfaction, and dropout intentions over one semester. To this end, we used data of N = 326 undergraduate students enrolled in mathematics and law. Our latent cross-lagged panel model replicated existing empirical cross-sectional findings between the variables (i.e., academic procrastination, study satisfaction, and dropout intentions). Regarding the longitudinal relations, as expected, the cross-lagged effects showed that higher dropout intentions significantly related to subsequent higher academic procrastination and lower study satisfaction. Unexpectedly, academic procrastination did not significantly relate to subsequent dropout intentions. Additionally, higher study satisfaction significantly associated with subsequent higher dropout intentions—possibly due to unfulfilled expectations. Further, higher study satisfaction significantly related to subsequent higher procrastination—possibly due to more confidence among satisfied students. Our results broaden the view on dropout intentions as part of the dynamic interplay of student dropout determinants and the need to refine dropout models’ assumptions accordingly. Practically, realistic expectations seem important to reduce dropout intentions. Further, student counselors should have a closer look at the reasons for academic procrastination to develop individual solutions for this dysfunctional behavior.

     

大学生拖延行为与自我效能、知觉压力的关系研究--以杭州市大学生为考察对象

该文研究之目的:探索当前大学生的拖延行为与一般自我效能、知觉压力之间的相关关系。之方法:采用分层随机抽样的方法从杭州市大学生中抽取280人作为对象,利用问卷调查法收集调查对象的相关数据,运用SPSS25.0软件对数据进行录入和统计分析。之结果:大学生拖延行为具有较高发生率(大学生拖延行为发生率为80.4%);大学生拖延水平与一般自我效能呈负相关关系(r=-0.143,p<0.05),与知觉压力呈正相关关系(r=0.250,p<0.01)。之结论:就杭州市大学生而言,一般自我效能较高者,拖延水平相对较低;知觉压力较大者,拖延水平相对较高。就此,为制定帮助大学生群体减少拖延行为的策略提供实证依据和科学建议。     

高中生成就目标、学业情绪和学业拖延关系研究——以安徽省四所普通高中为例

以安徽省六安市和芜湖市793名高中生为研究对象,采用问卷调查的方法,了解高中生学业拖延的现状,探讨成就目标学业情绪和学业拖延之间的关系。分析后发现,学业拖延在学科和年级上存在显著差异,而在性别上差异不显著;高中生成就目标、学业情绪和学业拖延两两之间都存在不同程度的相关;成就目标对学业情绪和学业拖延之间的关系存在调节作用。     

大学生学习拖延行为的现状调查与心理分析

采用《大学生学习拖延问卷》对河西学院185名在校大学生的学习拖延行为进行了问卷调查。调查结果显示:有47%的大学生存在不同程度的学习拖延现象,大学生学习拖延现象较为普遍;大学生学习拖延行为存在显著的性别差异和年级差异,但不存在学科与城乡差异。男生的学习拖延行为多于女生,一年级学生的学习拖延行为少于其他三个年级学生。学习拖延对大学生的消极影响较大,这些消极影响包括情绪困扰、学业不良、生活不适等。     

The relationship between perceived competence and earned credits in competence-based higher education

We explored how two types of study outcomes, perceived competence and earned credits, are interrelated, and influenced by self-regulation, motivation (intrinsic value and expectancy of procrastination) and deep approach to learning. The relationships between these variables were analysed in a sample of 894 first-year Dutch university students, using linear structural modelling. Results show that learning process factors play other roles in explaining perceived competence than in explaining earned credits. Perceived competence and earned credits, as two sides of the same coin in competence-based education, are only weakly related. Furthermore, this study shows that it is most likely that perceived competence affects earned credits, but a model in which earned credits affects perceived competence as possible causal relationship was also accepted, although the relationship remains weak. The practical implication of this study is that, as long as perceived competence and the number of credits are not related, competence-based higher education will not obtain optimal efficiency. For participants and researchers in higher education, it remains important to be aware that different learning goals may evoke different study behaviours in students, and the challenge for higher education is to align these goals.     

初中生教师期望知觉、学习自我效能感和实现幸福感的关系

实现幸福感的提出为积极心理学提供了新的研究领域。本研究采用教师期望知觉量表、学习自我效能感量表和实现幸福感量表对378名初中生进行调查,结果发现:初中生教师期望知觉能够显著预测初中生实现幸福感水平;学习自我效能感在初中生教师期望知觉和实现幸福感间起部分中介作用,中介效应占总效应的65.96%。教师期望知觉既可以直接影响初中生的实现幸福感,也可以通过学习自我效能感的中介作用间接地影响实现幸福感。