Understanding academic procrastination: A Longitudinal analysis of procrastination and emotions in undergraduate and graduate students

Abstract

The research presented in this paper examined the relationships between academic procrastination and learning-specific emotions, and how these variables predict one another over time among undergraduate (n = 354) and graduate students (n = 816). Beyond findings showing expected valences of relations between procrastination and positive emotions (enjoyment, hope, and pride) and negative emotions (anger, anxiety, shame, hopelessness, boredom, and guilt), autoregressive cross-lagged panel analyses showed various directional relations between procrastination and emotions over time. More precisely, specific emotions were found to influence procrastination (e.g., undergraduates: anxiety; graduate students: hope), procrastination was found to influence specific emotions (e.g., undergraduates: guilt; graduate students: boredom), and bidirectional relations between procrastination and learning-related emotions were also observed (e.g., graduate students: enjoyment, anxiety, and guilt). Implications for future research on academic procrastination and remedial procrastination interventions for students are discussed.