Frequent Behavioral Delay Tendencies By Adults

Abstract

Adult men (n = 582) and women (n = 765) from six nations (Spain, Peru, Venezuela, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States) completed two reliable and valid measures of chronic procrastination. Because both arousal and avoidant procrastination types were significantly related across the entire sample (r = .72, p < .001) and within each national sample, regression analyses calculated “pure” arousal and “pure” avoidant procrastinators, controlling for the scale scores of the other scale. Results indicated no significant sex or nationality differences within and between nations on self-reported arousal or avoidant procrastination. Overall, 13.5% and 14.6% of men and women self-identified as either arousal or avoidant procrastinators, respectively. These findings suggest that the tendency toward frequent delays in starting or completing tasks may be prevalent across diverse populations in spite of their distinct cultural values, norms, and practices.

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Psychology
Journal of Cross-Cultural
DOI: 10.1177/0022022107302314
2007; 38; 458 Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology
Argumedo
Joseph R. Ferrari, Juan Francisco Díaz-Morales, Jean O'Callaghan, Karem Díaz and Doris
Chronic Procrastination
Frequent Behavioral Delay Tendencies By Adults: International Prevalence Rates of
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458
FREQUENT BEHAVIORAL DELAY TENDENCIES BY ADULTS
International Prevalence Rates of Chronic Procrastination
JOSEPH R. FERRARI
DePaul University
JUAN FRANCISCO DÍAZ-MORALES
Complutense University
JEAN O’CALLAGHAN
Roehampton University
KAREM DÍAZ
DORIS ARGUMEDO
Pontifical Catholic University
Adult men (n=582) and women (n=765) from six nations (Spain, Peru, Venezuela, the United Kingdom,
Australia, and the United States) completed two reliable and valid measures of chronic procrastination.
Because both arousal and avoidant procrastination types were significantly related across the entire
sample (r=.72, p<.001) and within each national sample, regression analyses calculated “pure” arousal
and “pure” avoidant procrastinators, controlling for the scale scores of the other scale. Results indicated
no significant sex or nationality differences within and between nations on self-reported arousal or
avoidant procrastination. Overall, 13.5% and 14.6% of men and women self-identified as either arousal
or avoidant procrastinators, respectively. These findings suggest that the tendency toward frequent delays
in starting or completing tasks may be prevalent across diverse populations in spite of their distinct
cultural values, norms, and practices.
Keywords: chronic procrastination; prevalence rates; cultural nationalities
Levine and colleagues (Levine, 2005; Levine & Barlett, 1984; Levine & Norenzayan,
1999) examined the pace of life for adults living in large cities from numerous countries
and found that fast-paced lives were more dominant in Westernized, economically devel-
oped nations and may have serious negative health consequences around meeting time
frames. According to Brislin and Kim (2003), cultural differences in norms and values
exist in the perception of time that may affect a person’s ability to examine the impact of
long-term consequences, avoid risks, and live in the here and now, focusing on short-term
perspectives. Two components of their model pertinent to the present study are how punc-
tual a person may be and how efficiently that person accomplishes several tasks within a
limited time frame. The present study focuses on a behavioral index of these components
through a person’s tendency to procrastinate—a purposive delay in failing to start or meet
deadlines (Ferrari, Johnson, & McCown, 1995).
AUTHORS’NOTE: The authors express gratitude to Clarry Lay and Henri Schouwenburg for comments on early portions of this
article and to Anthony Owens for assistance in data collection. Direct correspondence to the first author at DePaul University,
Department of Psychology, 2219 North Kenmore Ave., Chicago, IL 60614; e-mail: jferrari@depaul.edu.
JOURNAL OF CROSS-CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY, Vol. 38 No. 4, July 2007 458-464
DOI: 10.1177/0022022107302314
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Ferrari et al. / PREVALENCE OF PROCRASTINATION 459
At present, two reliable and valid measures of chronic procrastination have been iden-
tified with men and women in the United States (Harriott & Ferrari, 1996), with equal
prevalence rates of about 15%. One scale seems to be related to a tendency to delay tasks
as a thrill-seeking experience to ward off boredom and work “best under pressure.” Lay’s
(1986) 5-point, 20-item, unidimensional General Behavioral Procrastination (GP) Scale
(containing statements such as “I always seem to shop for birthday gifts at the last minute,”
“I often find myself performing tasks that I intended to do days before,” and “I usually buy
even an essential item at the last minute”; see Ferrari et al., 1995) identified such delays
as being motivated by a need for arousal (Ferrari, 1992, 2000). Because scores on this scale
have been related to external attributes or excuses for delays (Ferrari, 1993) and poor per-
formance when environmental stressors existed that heightened arousal at task deadlines
(Ferrari, 2001), this self-report measure seems to be an appropriate measure to assess
arousal procrastination.
The other scale of frequent procrastination among adults seems to be a reflection of low
self-esteem and self-confidence such that a person delays completing tasks that might reveal
potential poor abilities. McCown and Johnson’s (1989; items found in Ferrari et al., 1995)
Adult Inventory of Procrastination (AIP), a 5-point, 15-item, unidimensional scale (sample
items include “I am not very good at meeting deadlines,” “My friends and family think I
wait until the last minute,” and “Putting things off until the last minute has cost me money
in the past year”) is a global measure of frequent procrastination examining a variety of
tasks to deflect potential disclosure of perceived inabilities and incompetence (Ferrari,
1993) and self-relevant information about one’s skills and competence (Ferrari,1991). This
scale then may be considered a good self-report measure of avoidant procrastination.
To examine the discriminant validity of both procrastination measures within a cross-
cultural context, Ferrari and Díaz-Morales (in press) analyzed the characteristic profile of
arousal and avoidant motives of procrastination related to past, present, and future time
conceptions. Results provided evidence that despite a high relationship in measures, there
are distinct motives for chronic procrastination. Avoidant procrastination was associated
negatively with present–fatalistic time orientation, and arousal procrastination was associ-
ated positively with present–hedonistic and negatively with future time orientation. It
should be noted that both arousal and avoidant procrastinations have been significantly
related (rrange =.65 to .75) when measured in the same study with the same adult
samples. To ascertain prevalence rates of both procrastination types among international
samples of adult men and women, it is necessary to separate the shared covariance between
both types and examine “pure” procrastination types. Pure in the present context refers to
understanding the separate contributions of both procrastination typologies in contributing
to task delays among adults. In personality research, the use of residual scores after con-
ducting regression analyses to examine related but separate variables is an accepted pro-
cedure (see Lutwak, Ferrari, & Cheek, 1998, for an example).
In the present study, we focus on the replication of general psychological measures and
processes related to procrastination across languages and countries among men and women
from six nations. To establish the cross-cultural equivalence of a questionnaire, satisfactory
translation (verified by a back translation) of the questionnaire must be applied (Paunonen &
Ashton, 1998). Fortunately, Díaz-Morales, Díaz, Argumedo, and Ferrari (2006) established
the validity of both procrastination scales used in the present study with varied Spanish-
speaking adult populations. It was expected in the present study that the prevalence of arousal
and avoidant procrastination would be similar for men and women within each nation, con-
sistent with previous research (e.g., Ferrari, O’Callaghan, & Newbegin, 2005). No published
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460 JOURNAL OF CROSS-CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY
study compares prevalence rates of arousal and avoidant procrastination (measured by the
GP and AIP measures, respectively) between men and women across nations with differ-
ent languages. The present study, therefore, extends the notions of punctuality and task
completion related to perceptions of time (Brislin & Kim, 2003) within six nations.
METHOD
PARTICIPANTS
Participants were women (n=765) and men (n=582) living in metropolitan areas
within one of six countries (Australia, Peru, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States,
and Venezuela). More specifically, from the United States, there were 207 adults (122
women, 85 men); Australia, 214 adults (124 women, 90 men); United Kingdom, 239
adults (143 women, 96 men); Venezuela, 123 adults (76 women, 47 men); Spain, 276
adults (141 women, 135 men); and Peru, 254 adults (132 women, 122 men). To ensure
more matched samples, we recruited middle-aged adults (Mage =40.7 years old, SD =
12.35, range =30 to 65 years old) within each country. Most participants reported they
were married (80%) with two children (Mnumber of children =1.88, SD =0.34).
Participants also reported they were employed at their present position, on average, 2 to 3
years (M=2.66 years, SD =0.88), and all participants would be labeled as middle-class
employed adults similar to U.S. standards.
PSYCHOMETRIC SCALES
All participants completed Lay’s (1986) 20-item, 5-point (1 =not true of me,5 =very
true of me) GP, which examines behavioral tendencies to delay the start or completion of
everyday tasks for thrill-seeking experiences. Participants also completed the 15-item,
5-point Likert-type scale (1 =strongly disagree,5 =strongly agree) self-report AIP devel-
oped by McCown and Johnson (1989; see Ferrari et al., 1995, for details) to examine
chronic task delays across a variety of situations motivated by avoidance of task unpleas-
antness and personal performance anxieties. Both scales were translated into Spanish by
the second and fourth authors and then back translated from Spanish to English by a bilin-
gual expert who was not a psychologist. An independent translator did the verification of
the translation, as suggested by Paunonen and Ashton (1998; see Ferrari et al., 1995, for
English and Díaz-Morales et al., 2006, for Spanish versions of these scales, including
their psychometric properties). For the present samples, the median coefficient alpha on
the GP scale was 0.83 and on the AIP measure was 0.85, suggesting good internal consis-
tency within each country. Table 1 presents the mean score and coefficient alpha for each
of the six countries.
PROCEDURES
Demographic data were collected by asking each participant to voluntarily complete a
survey of their age, sex, marital status, number of children, and length of time at their cur-
rent employed position as well as the GP and AIP scales in counterbalanced order.
Participants were recruited from middle-class adults living in and around major metropol-
itan areas within each country, with the restriction that gender and age be maintained for
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Ferrari et al. / PREVALENCE OF PROCRASTINATION 461
balanced samples. For U.S., Australian, and Venezuelan adults, the first author asked
groups of adults attending community-based public meetings in and around Chicago,
Melbourne, and Caracas, respectively, to participate. The second author used a snowball
method assisted by undergrads to solicit participation in and around Madrid, Spain. The
third author solicited random samples of U.K. adults living in and around London. The
fourth and fifth authors solicited random samples of adults who shared similar middle-
class demographic profiles living in Lima, Peru.
RESULTS
Table 1 presents the mean avoidant and arousal procrastination score for each of the six
international countries. A 2 (sex) ×6 (nation) MANOVA was performed on the GP and
AIP scores to assess whether there were significant differences in chronic procrastination
between men and women from each of the six countries. Consistent with other research
(see Ferrari et al., 1995; Ferrari & Pychyl, 2000), there were no significant sex main or
interaction effects. However, there was a significant main effect for nation, multivariate
F(10, 2646) =20.44, p<.001, Wilks’s Lambda =.862. Subsequent one-way ANOVA
between the six nations indicated a significant difference between nations on the GP scale,
F(5, 1430) =27.01, p<.001, and the AIP measure, F(5, 1438) =19.13, p<.001. Post
hoc analyses (Newman-Keuls, p<.05) indicated that adults living in the United Kingdom
reported significantly higher chronic arousal procrastination compared to adults from
Peru, the United States, and Spain, with adults from Venezuela and Australia claiming the
lowest prevalence. In addition, adults living in the United Kingdom reported significantly
higher chronic avoidant procrastination compared to adults from Peru, the United States,
and Australia, with the lowest reported tendencies among adults from Spain and Venezuela
(see Table 1).
We examined the magnitude of the differences between mean procrastination scores for
these six nations (Cohen, 1988). For arousal procrastination, the mean difference between
the United Kingdom versus Peru, Spain, plus the United States had a medium effect size,
TABLE 1
Mean Score, Coefficient Alpha, and Zero-Order Correlates for Arousal (Ars.)
and Avoidant (Avd.) Procrastination Measures for Each Nation
Within
Ars. Procrastination Avd. Procrastination Country
Ars.
×
Avd.
Country MSD
α
MSD
α
Correlate
Spain (141 women, 135 men) 46.51 10.16 .86 32.38 8.52 .82 .717**
Peru (132 women, 122 men) 50.01 10.02 .79 35.98 8.88 .79 .664**
Venezuela (76 women, 47 men) 44.33 10.25 .78 31.29 10.50 .83 .754**
Australia (124 women, 91 men) 44.72 11.65 .89 33.97 8.22 .86 .724**
United Kingdom (196 women, 52.46 12.65 .79 39.01 8.61 .86 .700**
115 men)
United States (103 women, 65 men) 49.22 11.30 .87 35.64 9.64 .85 .747**
**p<.001.
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462 JOURNAL OF CROSS-CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY
d=.339; between Peru, Spain, plus the United States versus Venezuela plus Australia,
there was a medium effect size, d=.373; and between the United Kingdom versus
Venezuela plus Australia, there was a large effect size, d=.671. For avoidant procrastina-
tion, the mean difference between the United Kingdom versus Peru, the United States, plus
Australia had a medium effect size, d=.435; between Peru, the United States, plus
Australia versus Spain plus Venezuela, also a medium effect size, d=.364; and between
the United Kingdom versus Spain plus Venezuela, a large effect size, d=.811.
Nevertheless, these medium and large effect sizes still accounted for less than 50% of
the distribution of nonoverlapping scores on GP and AIP measures. Also, both sets of
chronic procrastination scores within each country were significantly interrelated. The
overall mean and median coefficient was 0.72 (p<.001) collapsing across all six nations.
This fact indicates that for the present adult samples, chronic procrastination behavior pat-
terns were not mutually exclusive. Consequently, to estimate the prevalence rates of pure
procrastination types among adults of each country (to compare independently GP and AIP
scores), we regressed GP scores on AIP scores, and then vice versa, to obtain standardized
zresidual scores for the sole variance of the specific procrastination types. We then calcu-
lated the percentage of people that obtained a Zresidual score >1.00 for both procrasti-
nation types. Setting our criteria to scores >1.00 permitted us to select what we labeled as
pure arousal and pure avoidant procrastinators independent of crossover effects between
typologies. We applied this method to compute residual scores separately for each country
using its own population, to correct for cultural sensitivity/interpretation of behavioral
delays. In other words, the use of within-culture zscores allowed us to identify pure
interindividual variances within cultures while correcting for between-culture variance.
The analysis of between-culture variance, although significant and large, was not the focus
of the present study. Instead, our aim was to explore cross-cultural replication of possible
common behavioral tendencies. The percentages of pure types of procrastination estimated
by this procedure are presented in Table 2.
A 2 (sex) ×6 (nation) MANOVA then was performed on the percentage of pure arousal
and avoidant procrastination types to assess whether there were significant differences in
procrastination among adults from each of the six countries. There was no significant sex
main or interaction effect. Using the residual scores that obtained orthogonal procrastination
types, there was no significant main or interaction effect by nation. As noted by Table 2, the
overall percentage of adults who reported behavioral procrastination tendencies associated
with an arousal motive was 13.5%, and with avoidant tendencies, 14.6%.
TABLE 2
Percentage of Adults With Pure Arousal or Avoidant Procrastination Tendencies
Procrastination Type
Country Arousal Avoidant
Spain 13.1 14.6
Peru 12.4 14.9
Venezuela 15.6 15.2
Australia 14.4 15.3
United Kingdom 10.9 13.8
United States 16.1 15.5
Total 13.5 14.6
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Ferrari et al. / PREVALENCE OF PROCRASTINATION 463
DISCUSSION
The tendency toward delaying the start or completion of tasks, known as procrastina-
tion, is common among the adults studied in six countries, consistent with previous litera-
ture reviews (van Eerde, 2003). Large and significant country effects emerged in the
present study when we examined raw procrastination scores. But the focus of our study
was within-group rather than between-group variance, and further analyses on prevalence
rates used standardized residuals. We used regression analyses to compute standardized
residual scores to calculate pure procrastination types to statistically control for the shared
variance found between procrastination types within and between each of the nations.
Results found men and women self-reported rates of 13.5% for arousal procrastination and
14.6% for avoidant procrastination, despite using different data collection methods and
different item translations. Our results found the rates of arousal and avoidant procrastina-
tion similar across nations, when controlled statistically, showing cross-cultural common-
ality rather than cross-cultural differences.
Although previous research indicated that both self-report scales are reliable and valid
measures (Ferrari & Pychyl, 2000), more research is needed that includes direct behavioral
indices with adults in different nations. The present study was the first systematic investi-
gation of chronic procrastination with adults from six different nations. Men and women
in varied nations are prone to a “mañana” lifestyle, but the causes and consequences within
each culture need further investigation to ascertain an indigenous psychology (Adair &
Diaz-Loving, 1999; Kim, Park, & Park, 2000). The present study provides an initial mea-
surement of how people from varied nations behave on the basis of their conception of
time lines and their relatively busy lifestyles (Brislin & Kim, 2003).
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Joseph R. Ferrari is a professor of psychology and Vincent de Paul Distinguished Professor at DePaul
University, Chicago. He is the editor of the Journal of Prevention and Intervention in the Community
(Haworth Press). His research interests include experimental social–personality psychology (procrastina-
tion, shame/guilt, impostor phenomena, attitude change and persuasion, attribution processes) and applied
social–community psychology (caregiver stress/satisfaction, community volunteerism, addiction recovery,
sense of community, and higher education mission statements). In procrastination research, he is author of
three scholarly volumes, more than 60 peer-reviewed publications, and more than 120 conference presenta-
tions. He also is an invited motivational speaker on procrastination and life change issues.
Juan Francisco Díaz-Morales is a professor of psychology at Complutense University of Madrid. His gen-
eral research interests concern individual differences, including personality styles, chronopsychology,
time psychology, and procrastination. He was a lecturer at the National Program for Researcher
Formation from 1998 to 2001. He is a coauthor of the Spanish adaptation of the Millon Index of
Personality Styles and has conducted research in France and Peru. He is a member of the official research
group Personality Styles, Gender, and Health at Complutense University of Madrid.
Jean O’Callaghan is a principal lecturer in psychology and counseling at Roehampton University,
London, and an integrative psychotherapist. She has research interests in self-regulation, procrastination,
and disability in higher education.
Karem Díaz is a professor of psychology at Pontifical Catholic University in Lima, Peru, and a rational
emotive behavioral therapist trained at the Albert Ellis Institute in New York. Her research interests lie in
the areas of cognitive and personality psychology, procrastination, and motivation.
Doris Argumedo is a professor in the Department of Psychology at the Pontifical Catholic University of
Peru in the areas of psychometric methodology and psychopathology. Her research interests concern psy-
chological measurement and cross-cultural testing and assessment.
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