Research on relationship of the procrastination and the big five personality factors in university students

Abstract

Objective To study the relationship of the university students' procrastination and big five personality factors.Methods 461 university students were assessed by the simple edition of tuckman procrastination scale(TPS) and the big five personality inventory short form(NEO-FFI).Results TPS score of the student was (48.51 ± 7.66).There were 89.4% students respectively had different level of procrastination behavior.There were no significant differences in university students by the gender(47.95 ±7.84 vs 48.95 ± 7.43 ) ,whether one-child students(48.64 ± 7.49 vs 48.45 ± 7.81 ) and grades.There were significant positive correlation between procrastination and the personality factor of neuroticism( r=0.235, P＜0.01 ) and significant negative correlation with extraversion ( r=-0.180, P ＜ 0.01 ) and conscientiousness ( r =-0.198, P ＜ 0.01 ).The big five personality factors of neuroticism,extraversion and conscientiousness could explain the 14.0% variation of procrastination of university students.Conclusion Procrastination is a very common phenomenon in the university students.The students with higher neuroticism, lower extraversion and conscientiousness of big five personality have more procrastination behavior. Key words: University students; Procrastination; Big five personality