The Relationship between Self-Control and General Procrastination in University Students: The Mediating Role of Optimism

Abstract

Self-control, which is relevant to abandoning from the sudden impulses for a significant objective, tendency of optimism meaning that good things will happen in the future, and the tendency to procrastination briefly defined as the gap between intention and action are significant variables having effects on the well-being of the individuals. In literature, no study was found addressing these three variables together. In this direction, in this study, it was intended to examine the mediating role of optimism in the relationship between self-control and general procrastination in the university students. The research is based on relational survey model. 327 university students having their study in faculty of education of a government university in Turkey formed the sample of the research. The data of the research was collected by the use of brief self-control scale, general procrastination scale, optimism and pessimism scale, and adult form. SPSS 21 was used for descriptive data and Pearson correlation analysis, AMOS 23 was used for confirmatory factor analysis, and Process Macro 4.1 software (model 4) was used for the analysis of predicting and mediating relationships. In the research, it was determined that the significant relationships between self-control and general procrastination were in negative direction, the ones between self-control and optimism were in positive direction, and the ones between optimism and general procrastination were in negative direction. Moreover, partial mediating effect of optimism was determined in the relationship between self-control and general procrastination. Self-control has significant indirect effect on general procrastination through optimism, and optimism mediates this relationship.