Correlates of academic procrastination and students‟ grade goals

Abstract This study examined correlates of academic procrastination and students' grade goals in a sample of 226 undergraduates from Singapore. Findings indicated that self-efficacy for self-regulated learning was significantly and negatively related to procrastination. High self-efficacy for self-regulated learning also predicted students' expectations of doing well and low self-efficacy for self-regulated learning predicted students' expectations of not doing well academically. Additionally, helpseeking predicted students' expectations of doing well academically while academic stress predicted students' expectations of not doing well academically. Implications for education and educational practice were discussed. Academic procrastination can be understood as the voluntary delay of the completion of an academic task within the expected or desired time frame despite expecting to be worse off for the delay It is not surprising that procrastination is closely related to motivation variables such as self-efficacy for self-regulated learning; some researchers have conceptualized procrastination as a form of self-regulatory failure Test anxiety is another variable that may be related to procrastination. Some researchers studying test anxiety suggested that high-anxious children are not persistent or avoid difficult tasks, manifesting behavioral characteristics similar to that of procrastination Another variable that may be related to procrastination is help-seeking. Looking for assistance and support from teachers and peers is a vital instrumental act in the achievement domains of school and work While much has been studied about procrastination in adults and undergraduates across academic and nonacademic contexts, and across individuals in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia Materials and Methods Participants, Consent and Procedure Participants were 226 undergraduate students (54 males and 172 females) pursuing a major in Education from National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. The mean age of the undergraduate students was 21.07 years (SD=2.43). Participation rate was approximately 90%. The purpose of the study was explained to the participants and consent to participate in the study was obtained from all the participants involved. The participants took part in this study on a voluntary basis. Participants' responses were anonymous. Questionnaires were administered to participants in an organized classroom setting. All questionnaires were administrated in English and no translation was needed as English is the medium of instruction for all schools and universities in Singapore. Measures Procrastination Scale (PS) The 16-item Procrastination Scale (Tuckman 1991) measures procrastination tendencies in students. Participants rated items on a Likert scale from 1 (That's really not me) to 4 (That's me for sure). Sample items include "I postpone starting on things I don't like to do" and "When I have a deadline, I wait till the last minute". In the present sample, the Cronbach alpha reliability estimate for PS was 0.85. Self-Efficacy for Self-Regulated Learning Scale (SESRLS) The 11-item scale Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire-Test Anxiety scale (MSLQ-Test Anxiety) The 5-item MSLQ-Test Anxiety scale Academic Expectations Stress Inventory (AESI) The 9-item AESI (Ang and Huan 2006) was used to measure academic stress arising from expectations of parents/ teachers and expectations of self. Although two subscale scores can be obtained, this study used only the total score. Each item was rated on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (Never True) to 5 (Almost Always True). Sample items include "I feel I have disappointed my parents when I do poorly in school" and "I feel stressed when I don't live up to my own standards." In the present sample, the Cronbach alpha reliability estimate for AESI was 0.87. Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire-Help-Seeking (MSLQ-HelpSeeking) The 4-item MSLQ-Help-Seeking scale Expected Grade We asked the undergraduates to state their academic grade goals, defined as one's expected grade at the end of the academic year. Students were free to write a letter grade ranging from A to F for a common foundational course required of all Education majors. We used this procedure to obtain students' expected grade which was similar to the procedure used in Zimmerman et al.'s (1992) study. Of 226 undergraduates, 14.2% expected to obtain a grade of A, 68.6% expected to obtain a grade of B, and 7.5% expected to obtain a grade of C, with 9.7% of the participants choosing not to provide a response for this question. All undergraduates expected to pass the course with no student expecting a grade lower than a C. We were interested to examine whether certain motivational and learning strategies variables were significantly related to undergraduates' expectations of doing well or not doing well at the end of the academic year. Therefore, for the purposes of the present study, an expectation of obtaining a grade of A was operationalized as an expectation of doing well academically, while an expectation of obtaining a grade of C was operationalized as an expectation of not doing well academically. Results A standard multiple regression analysis was performed to examine our first research question and its associated hypotheses, specifically, to investigate whether Curr Psychol (2008) 27:135-144 139 motivational and learning strategies variables such as self-efficacy for self-regulated learning, test anxiety, academic stress, and help-seeking were significantly associated with procrastination. The predictors as a set accounted for 44.5% of the variance in procrastination scores, F (4, 210)=42.12, p<.05. As expected, self-efficacy for selfregulated learning was a significant predictor of procrastination (β=−.68, p<.05); specifically, self-efficacy for self-regulated learning and procrastination have a strong and inverse relationship whereby lower levels of self-efficacy for selfregulated learning was associated with higher levels of procrastination (see In the second logistic analysis, a test of the full model with self-efficacy for selfregulated learning, test anxiety, academic stress, and help-seeking as possible predictors, against a constant-only model was statistically significant, χ 2 (4, N=226)=11.86, p<.05, and this indicated that the predictors as a set could reliably predict an expectation of obtaining a grade of C. The variance accounted for by the set of predictors was approximately 13% (Nagelkerke R 2 =.13) and the prediction model accurately classified 91.5% of all the cases. Examination of individual predictors indicated that two out of four predictors reliably predicted the outcome of the expectation of obtaining a grade of C. The two statistically significant predictors were self-efficacy for self-regulated learning (Wald statistic=4.78, p<.05, odds ratio=0.55, CI for odds ratio= 0.32; 0.94) and academic stress (Wald statistic=6.52, p<.05, odds ratio=2.30, CI fo