Procrastination among post-16 students: how is it experienced and how can we reduce it? The views of students, teachers and educational psychologists.

Abstract

Abstract Background Academic procrastination has been defined as the voluntarily delay of an intended course of study-related action despite expecting to be worse off for the delay. As many as 70% of university students consider themselves procrastinators, and approximately 50% of university students procrastinate consistently and problematically. Despite this, research concerning the prevalence and prevention of procrastination among post-16 students in the UK is scarce. Temporal motivation theory (TMT) is one way to better understand procrastination because it helps explain why motivation grows exponentially as deadlines approach. TMT can be expressed mathematically as motivation = (expectancy x value) / (impulsiveness x delay). The current study was carried out in two phases. A mixed-methods approach to data collection and analysis was adopted using both quantitative and qualitative methods. I have summarised each phase below. Phase 1 Research Questions 1. How does procrastination as experienced by post-16 students compare with procrastination as described by temporal motivation theory? 2. How do post-16 students’ strategies for tackling procrastination compare with procrastination as described by temporal motivation theory? Methods Semi-structured interviews were carried out with twenty post-16 students to explore their lived experience of procrastination. Four case studies were employed to help elicit their responses. The students were then asked to outline approaches which might help other young people reduce procrastination behaviours. Template analysis (TA) was used to analyse the participants’ responses. Three original templates were drawn up to analyse participants’ responses in terms of how procrastination was defined, how it was described, and how it might be reduced. The original templates included the constructs making up TMT as a priori themes. These templates were then adapted and additional themes added. The extent to which the original templates were adapted showed the extent to which TMT accounted for the breadth of participants’ responses. Results TMT was found to be a useful way to explain how students approach a procrastination task. However, the components of TMT were found to interact in a number of important ways, resulting in different types of procrastination behaviour. Emotions were also shown to motivate cognition, with anxious feelings exaggerating the perceived cost of a procrastination task. Furthermore, students did not consider procrastination tasks in isolation, and aspects of TMT could be used to help determine whether they prioritised procrastination tasks, or alternative tasks. Lastly, TMT appeared to be a useful framework for planning interventions to tackle procrastination. However, TMT may not be a sufficient framework in and of itself. Phase 2 Research Questions 1. To what extent are the Phase One results generalisable to post-16 students? 2. To what extent do teachers and educational psychologists agree with the views of post-16 students about procrastination and temporal motivation theory? Methods Surveys were designed to capture the constructs which emerged during Phase One. Post-16 students (n=343), teachers of post-16 students (n=52), and educational psychologists (n=43) completed these surveys. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVAs) and appropriate post hoc tests were used to analyse the perceived importance of each construct. Relevant contrasts and comparisons are outlined in the text. Results Statistical analysis suggested that many of the Phase One results were generalisable. There were important areas where all three cohorts agreed. For example – regarding the role of deadlines in procrastination. However, some significant differences were also observed. These included a difference in opinion about the value of alternative tasks; a greater value placed on smartphones by students; and a more negative evaluation of procrastination tasks by students. Lastly, there were some results which were too subtle to be picked up using the Phase Two survey (in relation to complacency, for example). Overall discussion and future directions Different aspects of the TMT equation interact – along with emotion – to produce different patterns of avoidance. For example, low expectancy-beliefs result in negative emotions, especially when accompanied by high evaluations of task cost. Similarly, anxious feelings may lead to an exaggerated perception of the cost of a procrastination task, which may be why starting a procrastination task is especially difficult. This may also be why it is so easy to get distracted beforehand. Moreover, the utility value of a procrastination task is often set in opposition to the high intrinsic value of alternative tasks. These conflicts can result in distress and anxiety. In terms of practical implications, adopting practical strategies requires self-regulation in and of itself, and the subjective experience of low expectancy beliefs seems to make following practical advice problematic. It is also worth taking seriously the idea that this generation of students are at a particular disadvantage given their exposure to mobile technology. Future interventions might therefore tackle the regulation side of procrastination. In these cases, teachers and other professionals might support students with timetables, SMART targets, and intermittent deadlines. However, all three groups also agreed that decreasing the negative emotions associated with a task might help reduce procrastination. Support for students could therefore be targeted at the emotional aspect of procrastination. Approaches such as mindfulness, CBT and ACT may be helpful. Finally, some future directions are also suggested. For example, a better understanding of how STVs are deployed to rank tasks, and what the emotional cost is for making these judgements. A role for EPs in supporting each group to understand procrastination and the different ways that it can be perceived is also suggested.