Features of mental states and academic performance of students with a high level of academic procrastination

Abstract

Academic procrastination of students remains an actual and significant subject of research in many psychological schools, directions of both domestic and foreign authors. In this paper, an attempt is made to scientifically study the phenomenon of academic procrastination in medical students, and also presents a meaningful analysis of the mental states of students with various academic success and showing a high level of academic procrastination. One of the methodological bases of the study was the classification of procrastination types according to N. Milgram. The respondents in our study were medical students of the 1st and 6th courses in the number of 80 people. At the empirical stage, the following methods were used: "Self-assessment of mental states" by G. Eysenck; "PASS procrastination Assessment Scale" by M. V. Zvereva; methods of mathematical processing of research results (Mann-Whitney U-criterion; Kruskal-Wallis criterion; Pearson correlation analysis). В The paper reveals the frequency of the manifestation of academic procrastination and the peculiarities of mental states in medical students studying in the first and sixth years. Statistically significant differences were found between first- and sixth-year respondents in the frequency and quality of academic procrastination. In addition, the links between a high level of academic procrastination, mental states (anxiety, frustration, aggressiveness, rigidity) and the academic performance of medical students were determined. For some correlations, clinical characteristics of the mental states of highly procrastinating students are given. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that mental states are considered not only as a cause, but also as a consequence of academic procrastination of students. The results of the study may provide valuable provisions for the construction of clinical observations in order to describe the personal characteristics of students with a high level of academic procrastination. The further development of preventive measures and correctional activities for the prevention of mental states contributing to the development of tendencies to personality disorders of highly procrastinating students is promising.