Individual differences in academic procrastination tendency and writing success

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Abstract

This study examined the relation between academic procrastination tendency and student writing success. We found that the tendency to procrastinate on writing tasks was associated with general anxiety, anxiety about writing the paper, writing the paper later than usual, less satisfaction with writing the paper, and lower grades. Additionally, receipt of feedback on writing was associated with better writing outcomes for high procrastinators. These results have implications for understanding academic procrastination and the use of academic interventions to address procrastination.

Introduction

Procrastination can sometimes be beneficial, such as when the payment of US income tax is delayed as long as legally permitted (Ferrari, Johnson, & McCown, 1995). Typically, however, procrastination is viewed as “the act of needlessly delaying tasks to the point of experiencing subjective discomfort” (Solomon & Rothblum, 1984, p. 503). Thus, it is not surprising that procrastination is frequently not in one's best interest. For college students particularly, academic procrastination has been associated with depression (Solomon & Rothblum, 1984), guilt (Pychyl, Lee, Thibodeau, & Blunt, 2000), low grades (Wesley, 1994), anxiety (Rothblum, Solomon, & Murakami, 1986), neuroticism (Watson, 2001), irrational thinking (Bridges & Roig, 1997), cheating (Roig & DeTommaso, 1995), and low self-esteem (Ferrari, 1992, Ferrari, 2000).

Procrastination may be an especially serious problem for student writing. In Solomon and Rothblum's (1984) study, more than 40% of the participants reported that they always or nearly always procrastinated on writing a term paper. In fact, more students reported that they procrastinate on writing papers than on any other academic activity. The high frequency of procrastination may hinder learning in writing-intensive classes because students typically need long periods of planning and revision for their writing to succeed. Writing is a complex cognitive activity which often cannot be successfully managed in one hurried draft (Boice, 1997a, Boice, 1997b, Britton et al., 1975, Emig, 1971, Flower, 1988, Hayes & Flower, 1986); furthermore, lack of revision can lead to writer's block, as the writer tries unsuccessfully to achieve perfection in the initial draft (Boice, 1997a, Rose, 1980). Moreover, when procrastination precludes the possibility of revision, the consequences may extend beyond the assignment grade. US students, for example, are widely perceived to be deficient in writing skills, and many college graduates must accept low-level jobs as a result of this deficiency (Koretz, 1997, Pryor, 1997).

To treat situation-specific procrastination, such as academic procrastination on writing tasks, Ferrari (2001) outlines several possible behavior management techniques. We argue that additional avenues of academic support may help student procrastinators. Many universities offer writing centers in which peers work with peers (Harris & Kinkead, 1993, Harris, 1995, Kail & Trimbur, 1987, Murphy & Law, 1995). Also, well-established writing pedagogy frequently incorporates other types of feedback such as teacher-student conferences and in-class peer workshops (Anson, 1989, Harris, 1986, Harris, 1992). Feedback on writing can complement other psychological treatments. Specifically, receipt of feedback on writing may help with two of the main reasons identified for procrastination: fear of failure and task aversiveness (Solomon & Rothblum, 1984). The feedback may help high fear-of-failure procrastinators by reducing unhelpful perfectionism, and it may help task-averse procrastinators by making the writing seem less unpleasant. And, although feedback on writing may not, in itself, be enough to overcome a deeply ingrained tendency to procrastinate, it may be related to better performance on assigned writing. Given the importance of writing to academic and professional success, such a result would be beneficial in itself.

In this study, we measured academic procrastination, writing behavior, anxiety, and grades of students in writing-intensive courses. Moreover, we examined whether feedback on writing was related to writing success for academic procrastinators. Specifically, we developed two hypotheses:

Hypothesis 1

Academic procrastination was expected to be associated with anxiety about writing a major paper, delay behaviors on the writing assignment, less satisfaction with the writing experience, lower paper grades, and lower grades in writing-intensive courses.

Hypothesis 2

High academic procrastinators were expected to be less likely to seek feedback on their writing prior to submitting it for a grade. However, receipt of writing feedback was expected to moderate the relationship between individual differences in academic procrastination tendency and outcomes, such that receiving feedback would be more helpful for those who report a high tendency to procrastinate than for those with a low tendency to procrastinate.

Section snippets

Participants

Participants were 206 undergraduate students enrolled in writing-intensive classes from a large, US metropolitan university. The majority of participants were White (67%), women (63%), and first-year college students (69%). Participants represented 50 different college majors, and 80% of the participants were 18 or 19 years old (ages ranged from 17 to 38 years).

Procrastination

Academic procrastination was measured with the Procrastination Assessment Scale – Students (PASS; Solomon & Rothblum, 1984). This

Results

Table 1 presents scale intercorrelations, the number of items per scale, means, standard deviations, and coefficient alphas. As seen in Table 1, the tendency to procrastinate on writing tasks was associated with general anxiety, anxiety about writing the paper, writing the paper later than usual, and less satisfaction with writing the paper. Moreover, academic procrastination was associated with lower GPAs and grades in writing-intensive courses. These findings provide support for Hypothesis 1.

Discussion

The results of this study indicate that individual differences in academic procrastination tendency relate to a variety of negative personal and performance-related outcomes that can impact student writing and, ultimately, college success. Specifically, procrastination tendency was associated with increased anxiety, delayed writing behavior, and lower grades. Moreover, receipt of feedback on writing was associated with better writing outcomes for high procrastinators. Thus, students may be able

Acknowledgements

Our thanks to the University of Central Florida, the University of Central Florida's Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning, and the International Writing Centers Association for funding this study. Thanks also to Christina Mendez and Christina Cureton for their research assistance. Preliminary work from this study was presented at the annual meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association (2000) and the Conference on College Composition and Communication (2001). The portion of data

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