Academic Procrastination among Undergraduates Attending School of Physical Education and Sports: Role of General Procrastination, Academic Motivation and Academic Self-Efficacy.

Abstract

Today, procrastination is a more common phenomenon among students than ever. Because they have lots of thing to do but they have limited time. When the literature concerning procrastination is reviewed, it can be easily made out that reasons for procrastination behaviours are various. Because of these reasons, sometimes, we do not go into action until the very last minute, sometimes, we go into action after the scheduled time is over or we never go into action. Especially, undergraduates frequently exhibit procrastination behaviour toward their academic tasks such as preparing homework, studying and preparing for exams. Researches on this subject clearly show that it is impossible to explain procrastination behaviour with only one variable. So the aim of this study was to investigate whether general procrastination, academic motivation and academic self-efficacy can act as predictors of academic procrastination among undergraduates attending different departments (physical education and sport teaching, trainer education, sport management and recreation) at school of physical education and sports. In addition, their academic procrastination was examined in terms of gender, department and grade variables. The study group consisted of 774 students attending school of physical education and sports at Selcuk University, Samsun University, and NiAŸde University in Turkey. The academic procrastination scale, general procrastination scale, academic motivation scale, academic self-efficacy scale and a personal data form were used as scaling instruments. Pearson’s correlation coefficient, multiple regression analysis, independent samples t-test and one-way ANOVA were used to analyze the data collected. The results show a significant positive correlation between academic procrastination and general procrastination, while the relationship between academic procrastination and, academic motivation, academic self-efficacy was not statistically significant. Furthermore, general procrastination was determined to be a significant predictor of academic procrastination. The results also show a significant difference in academic procrastination in terms of students’ departments and grade though levels of academic procrastination did not differ in terms of gender. These findings are discussed in the light of the relevant literature and some new directions for further studies are suggested. Key words: School of physical education and sports academic procrastination, general procrastination, academic motivation, academic self-efficacy.