Structural relationships among academic procrastination, academic motivation, and problem solving skill in prep class college students

Nihal Yurtseven,Selçuk Doğan

doi:10.14527/pegegog.2019.027

Abstract

Academic procrastination has been one of the major problems among students from different levels of education, specifically for college students. The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of problem solving skill, a kind of cognitive skill, as well as academic motivation on academic procrastination behaviors of university students. In this explanatory correlational research study, 509 college students who enrolled in an extensive English language program at a public university in Turkey were included. As data collection tools, Tuckman procrastination scale, academic motivation scale and problem solving skill inventory were used. After testing our proposed theory through Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), we found that problem solving skill had a strong effect on academic procrastination. We provided evidence showing that academic procrastination was a function of problem solving skill and academic motivation, rather than driven by intrinsic or extrinsic motivation. The current study emphasizes that academic procrastination behavior is related to the problem solving skill and presents a different perspective that should be taken into consideration in dealing with academic procrastination behaviors.

Highlights

Academic procrastination has been one of the major problems among students from different levels of education; among college students (Balkis, 2006; Burka & Yuen, 1983; Ozer, Sackes, & Tuckman, 2013; Rice, Richardson, & Clark, 2012) and the underlying reasons for academic procrastination have attracted the attention of many researchers from all over the world
There have been empirical studies in which academic procrastination was used as a predictor to explain selfefficacy, self-regulation, and academic motivation (Cavusoglu & Karatas, 2015; Hannok, 2011; Hen & Goroshit, 2014; Kandemir, 2014; Uzun-Ozer, 2010)
Correlation coefficients were produced through a five-factor confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) model, so the estimates might be different from the ones in the actual tested structural model

Summary

Introduction

Academic procrastination has been one of the major problems among students from different levels of education; among college students (Balkis, 2006; Burka & Yuen, 1983; Ozer, Sackes, & Tuckman, 2013; Rice, Richardson, & Clark, 2012) and the underlying reasons for academic procrastination have attracted the attention of many researchers from all over the world. There have been empirical studies in which academic procrastination was used as a predictor to explain selfefficacy, self-regulation, and academic motivation (Cavusoglu & Karatas, 2015; Hannok, 2011; Hen & Goroshit, 2014; Kandemir, 2014; Uzun-Ozer, 2010). The general inference is that students who have low levels of academic motivation tend to delay their daily academic tasks more, compared to students with higher levels of academic motivation (Balkis, 2006; Vij & Lomash, 2014). This means that lack of academic motivation might increase the possibility of academic procrastination

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Results