Ellis & knaus 1977

Journal of Behavioural Sciences, Vol. 28, No. 1, 2018

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Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Safia Afzal, Alumni,

National Institute of Psychology, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad-Pakistan. Email:

safiaafzal786@gmail.com

Humaira Jami, PhD, Assistant Professor, National Institute of Psychology, Quaid-i-

Azam University, Islamabad-Pakistan. Email: jami@nip.edu.pk

Prevalence of Academic Procrastination and Reasons for Academic

Procrastination in University Students

*Safia Afzal and Humaira Jami, PhD

National Institute of Psychology, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad

Pakistan

The study was designed to investigate the prevalence and reasons for

academic procrastination in public university students. The sample

consisted of 200 university students including 155 women and 45 men

students from social and natural sciences departments. Academic

procrastination and reasons for it were measured by Procrastination

Assessment Scale for Students (Solomon & Rothblum, 1984a). Backward

linear regression analysis has shown that risk taking, task aversiveness,

and decision-making were significant predictors (reasons) for academic

procrastination while task aversiveness being strongest predictor with

medium level coefficient of regression. It was also revealed that

academic procrastination prevails at all three levels of education (MSc,

MPhil and PhD). Task aversiveness, time management, laziness,

rebellion against control, decision making, and lack of assertion were

more common reasons in students of social sciences than natural sciences

as shown by significant differences. Overall task aversiveness, fear of

failure, dependency, decision making and risk taking were common

reasons for indulging into academic procrastination.

Keywords. Academic procrastination, reasons for academic

procrastination, university students

The concept of procrastination is explained by Solomon and

Rothblum (1984a) as the tendency to delay initiation or completion of

important tasks to the point of discomfort. Procrastination can be an

enduring trait, viewed as a predisposition to postpone task which is

necessary to reach at some goal (Lay, 1986) that may be related to

temperament (Effert & Ferrari, 1995).

Academic Procrastination

Procrastination can be situation specific as Rothblum, Solomon,

and Murakmi (1986) explained academic procrastination as: a) To nearly

52 AFZAL AND JAMI

or always put off academic task; and b) to nearly or always experience

problematic level of anxiety associated with this procrastination.

Tuckman and Sexton (1989) viewed procrastination as the tendency to

put off or completely avoid an activity under one‟s control to reach goals.

Noran (2000) considers procrastinator as someone who knows that he/she

can do or want to do any task, plan and try for it; but does not complete it

or excessively delay and waste time in less important activities or

pleasure.

Procrastination is a common phenomenon among college and

university students (Ellis & Knaus, 1977; Oweini & Harraty, 2005; Steel,

2007) that brings into negative outcomes on their academic achievement

(Janssen, 2015; Klassen, Krawchuk, & Rajani, 2007). Steel (2007) in his

metanalytical study found that 70-95% of the students procrastinate that

is problematic in nature. It may be domain specific, as a study revealed

that students who procrastinate consistently perform poorly on term

assignments than students who do not procrastinate (Tice &

Baureminder, 1997). With technological advancement where online