The role of self-concept content, certainty and stability in academic procrastination

Academic procrastination has been associated with a variety of negative outcomes. While theorists have proposed that those with an unstable self-concept engage in procrastination due to the fear that they will be unable to meet the required standard, a systematic review conducted as part of the present study (Chapter 2) revealed that all research pertaining to the self-concept in academic procrastination has been correlational, thereby limiting the validity of such theories. As such, the present study employed an experimental design to investigate the self-concept of academic procrastinators (Chapter 3). Ninety-nine undergraduate students completed trait, symptom and academic procrastination inventories as well as measures of state-based affect and cognition, and self-concept content, certainty and stability before and after receiving feedback for a writing task. Compared to low procrastinators, high procrastinators described a self-concept characterised by a greater number of negative and procrastination-related attributes, higher levels of fear of negative evaluation, lower levels of self-concept clarity, self-efficacy and self-esteem and more severe symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress. Furthermore, both the content and certainty associated with procrastinators’ self-concept descriptions changed significantly as a result of receiving randomly allocated feedback for a writing task. While high procrastinators reported significant improvements to their self-concept after receiving a positive evaluation, low procrastinators showed a more positive self-concept which did not change after feedback. These results provide the first empirical evidence for the presence of an unstable self-concept in academic procrastinators, providing support for the aforementioned theory and emphasising the importance of addressing self-concept stability in the psychological treatment of academic procrastination. Further research may investigate mindfulness-based interventions

Pediatric acute Q fever mimics other common childhood illnesses.

Knowledge of Q fever has increased over the last decades, but research has mainly focused on adults. Data in children are scarce, and current knowledge is mostly based on case reports. The aim of this study was to determine predictors for acute Q fever in children in the general population. We retrospectively studied all children tested for Coxiella burnetii by serology and/or PCR upon request of their general practitioner in the regional laboratory for Medical Microbiology of the Jeroen Bosch during the Q fever outbreak in the Netherlands between 2007 and 2011. A total of 1061 patients was analyzed. Influenza-like illness and respiratory tract infection were the most common presentations of acute Q fever, mimicking other common childhood illnesses. None of the reported symptoms was significantly related to a positive test outcome and therefore presenting signs or symptoms have no predictive value in diagnosing Q-fever in children. Only diagnostic tests are reliable. As the infection generally follows a mild and uncomplicated course, we question if the difficulty of recognizing pediatric Q fever is a problem worth solving

Number of requested tests and test outcome divided per age.

<p>White bar: acute Q fever. Dark grey bar: no acute Q fever.</p

Modified groups of reported symptoms.

1<p>As single ‘symptom’ in 2 patients.</p>2<p><i>Other</i> contains: patient's request, profuse sweating, myalgia/arthralgia, headache, dizziness, palpitations, sleeping difficulty and weight loss; total number of symptoms in the non-acute Q fever group is 62, three cases having two symptoms.</p><p>For explanation of the modification see text.</p

Patient characteristics.

<p>Patient characteristics.</p

Reported items in the original multiple-choice questionnaire.

<p>Reported items in the original multiple-choice questionnaire.</p

Geographical distribution and number of responders and non-responders to the questionnaire.

<p>Dark green line: Jeroen Bosch Hospital laboratory encachment area. Responders and non-responders: see legend within the image.</p