Academic Procrastination Essay

In the present study participants reported a moderate level of procrastination (M=17.88, SD=3.8). The levels at which students procrastinated varied depending on the academic task, 48% writing a term paper, 46% studying for exams, 48% Reading weekly assignments, 24% Administrative tasks, 19% Attendance, 18% School activities in general (see Figure 1).

Academic Procrastination and GPA

In order to evaluate the relationship between academic procrastination and GPA, a Pearson’s correlation coefficient was calculated. Results, revealed a significant negative correlation between the two variables, r (148) = -.37, p< .05. This denotes that the more one procrastinates in their academic task, the greater the likelihood of them having a low GPA.

Academic

Findings, showed a significant negative correlation, r (151) = -.33, p< .05. Indicating, that the more an individual tends to procrastinate on academic task, the more likely they are to have a low self-efficacy.

Sex Differences

In order to determine sex differences in levels of academic procrastination, an independent samples t-test was conducted. Results revealed no significant differences between men and women on reported levels of academic procrastination, t (154) = 1.02, p = 0.31. The mean academic procrastination score for females was 17.61 (SD =3.67) and for males the mean was 18.23 (SD=3.96).

It was hypothesized that academic self-efficacy and GPA would both reveal a negative relationship to academic procrastination whereas anxiety would reveal a positive correlation. Additionally, we hypothesized that there would be a higher level of procrastination in HBCU males as opposed to females. As expected, the Pearson correlation coefficient showed that all three variables correlated, but only at a moderate level. The t-test, however uncovered no significant difference between male and females regarding academic procrastination. The results of this study are both consistent yet contradictory with a number of previous studies. For instance, similar to the findings of this study a significant amount of research indicates that self-efficacy plays a major role in how well individuals perform on academic task (Bong, 2001; Pajares, 1996). Self-efficacy not only influences how much effort one puts into a task, but the level at which they achieve the task. (Bandura, 1997; Britner & Pajares, 2006). There are mixed findings regarding the relationship between academic procrastination and academic performance. Comparable to the results of this study, evidence suggest that academic procrastination leads to injurious academic implementation, including insignificant grades and course withdrawal (Semb,