Patterns of Procrastination, Motivation, and Strategy Use across Class Contexts and Students’ Abilities

Abstract

The current study extended understanding of students’ procrastination tendencies through focus on the roles of varied class formats and student abilities. University participants enrolled in honors, online, and classroom-based writing courses completed established measures of procrastination, active procrastination, self-regulated learning, and self-handicapping tendencies. Students’ GPA and writing performance were also included as outcome measures. Findings indicated no significant differences in self-reported procrastination across class settings. Relations between reported active procrastination and self-regulated learning constructs were, however, significant and in the expected direction for self-efficacy, text anxiety, and effort regulation. Significant negative relations between active procrastination and the rehearsal and organization subscales of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire(MSLQ) were indicated. As hypothesized, reported active procrastination was not correlated with self-handicapping but yielded a surprising negative correlation with overall procrastination. Also, as expected, active procrastination was positively related to GPA and writing performance scores. Consistent with expectations but not previously tested, honors students reported higher active procrastination tendencies. Additional findings and recommendations for future research and implications for practice are considered.