Predictors of procrastination in first-year university students: role of achievement goals and learning strategies

Procrastination could be conceptualized as a self-regulation failure. However, it is still not clear what type of self-regulation processes are precisely underlying the students' tendency to procrastinate. The main objective of our study was therefore to predict variations in academic procrastination by considering two constructs related to self-regulation: motivational factors (i.e., achievement goals), and learning strategies: deep learning cognitive strategies -Elaboration and Critical thinking-, effort regulation management. The results of an online study on 249 first-year humanities and social sciences French students showed that 30% of the variance in procrastination was predicted positively by avoidance goals and negatively by effort regulation management. The effort regulation management strategy alone contributed to 24% of the variance in procrastination. Furthermore, the results confirmed the negative relationship between academic performance and procrastination tendency. Added together, these results support the conceptualization of procrastination as a self-regulation failure and specially of learning such as effort regulation management. Results are discussed in relation to possible interventions that aim to reduce procrastination in order to promote academic success and students' well-being.