PROCRASTINATION: A SERIOUS PROBLEM PREVALENT AMONG ADOLESCENTS

Abstract

Academic Procrastination is a pervasive problem for a large number of students across the globe. Procrastination is the tendency to postpone or delay performing a task or making decisions. Many of these students are highly vulnerable to negative consequences such as poor performance, decreased subjective well-being, negative affect and reduced life achievements. No single factor can be found responsible for academic procrastination. Various factors like anxiety, fear, failure, negative perceptions, and lack of motivation, low self efficacy and poor organizational skills can be responsible in increasing the procrastination among students. Some techniques which can be adopted to prevent procrastination among students are also given in the article. As the quality and continuity of education is directly concerned with the phenomenon of student procrastination, so intervention programs can be prepared in cooperation with administrators and counselors to prevent it.

Full text

ZENITH International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research ____________ISSN 2231-5780
Vol.7 (9), SEPTEMBER (2017), pp. 107-113
Online available at zenithresearch.org.in
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PROCRASTINATION:
A SERIOUS PROBLEM PREVALENT AMONG ADOLESCENTS
*DR.MADHURI HOODA
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF EDUCATION, M.D.UNIVERSITY, ROHTAK, HARYANA , INDIA.
** RANI DEVI
RESEARCH SCHOLAR, DEPT. OF EDUCATION, M.D.UNIVERSITY, ROHTAK, HARYANA, INDIA.
ABSTRACT
Academic Procrastination is a pervasive problem for a large number of students across the
globe. Procrastination is the tendency to postpone or delay performing a task or making
decisions. Many of these students are highly vulnerable to negative consequences such as poor
performance, decreased subjective well-being, negative affect and reduced life achievements. No
single factor can be found responsible for academic procrastination. Various factors like anxiety,
fear, failure, negative perceptions, and lack of motivation, low self efficacy and poor
organizational skills can be responsible in increasing the procrastination among students. Some
techniques which can be adopted to prevent procrastination among students are also given in the
article. As the quality and continuity of education is directly concerned with the phenomenon of
student procrastination, so intervention programs can be prepared in co-operation with
administrators and counselors to prevent it.
KEYWORDS: Academic Procrastination, Adolescents, prevalence.
Procrastination is like a credit card: It is a lot of fun until you get the bill.
Christopher Parker
Delaying or postponing has become a common phenomenon. I‘ll do it later or I‘ll think of it
tomorrow are frequently heard statements. Most people like to delay doing unpleasant or
monotonous tasks from time to time, for example, one may avoid cleaning the attic or one‘s
vehicles, renovating the house, cleaning the garage, or calling someone over the phone and other

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such tasks may be delayed due to procrastination. The extent of procrastination is vast, ranging
from employees to self- employed, household to workplace, academics to non-academics etc.
(Burka & Yuen, 2008). Procrastination is often a self - handicapping behavior that can lead to
lost productivity, poor performance and increased stress (Steel, 2007). Three proposed criteria
for a behavior to be classified as procrastination is being counterproductive, needless and
delaying (Schraw, Wadkins & Olafson, 2007).The essential feature of procrastination is
postponing, delaying or putting off an activity or a making a choice. The dictionary meaning of
the verb "procrastinate" is "to postpone, put off, defer, prolong." The word comes from two Latin
words: 'pro' meaning 'forward' and 'crastinus' which means 'belonging to tomorrow'. Thus,
procrastination means to willingly postpone a planned course of action even though we expect
the delay to be harmful. Procrastinators tend to hold up a task until the day after tomorrow what
they recognize should have been done the day before yesterday. Researchers have identified six
different aspects/domains of life where people procrastinate: academic and work, everyday
routines and obligations, health, leisure, family and partnership, and social contacts (Gropel &
Kuhl, 2006; Klingsleck, 2013). Each domain possesses different prevalence rates, correlations
with other constructs, reasons, and consequences.
The dictionary meaning of the word procrastination is - defer action, especially without good
reason. Solomon and Rothblum (1984) defined procrastination from a psychological viewpoint
as "the act of needlessly delaying tasks to the point of experiencing subjective discomfort". Later
Milgram (1993) explained the concept of procrastination in detail indicating that - it is primarily:
1) a behavior sequence of postponement; 2) resulting in a substandard behavioral product; 3)
involving a task that is perceived by the procrastinator as being important to perform; and 4)
resulting in a state of emotional upset. As the above definitions indicate, procrastination is
considered as a negative characteristic leading to adverse consequences. It is primarily
considered as a failure to regulate behavior and it has been shown that constant procrastinator
shows difficulty in exercising self-discipline and thus gives into impulsive behaviors instead of
starting or maintaining work on given tasks (Heward & Pychyl, 2011). But it is not always the
case. Several writers have mentioned procrastination as a practical delay or as avoiding hurry.
Thus, it is also deduced as a clever path of action which includes avoiding unnecessary work or
demonstrating patience. Thus at times, people deliberately choose to put off something because it

ZENITH International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research ____________ISSN 2231-5780
Vol.7 (9), SEPTEMBER (2017), pp. 107-113
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is low on their priority list or because they want to concentrate before making a decision or
taking action. They use procrastination so that they can reflect, simplify the alternatives, or
attend to what seems significant at that point. Thus procrastination leads to unpleasantness or it is
a deliberate effort for a preparation or giving time to oneself, it is extremely prevalent in the
general population and is a widespread phenomenon covering almost all areas of our life.
ACADEMIC PROCRASTINATION
Today, procrastination has become more prevalent among students than before because
technology has given them the platform to explore virtual global world where they have many
tasks to do in a restricted time span. Academic procrastination includes delaying of academic
tasks such as submitting assignments, making projects, depositing fee etc. Such activities are
postponed till the deadline approaches. Solomon and Rothblum (1984) have described academic
procrastination as - postponing primary academic tasks such as preparing for exams, preparing
term papers, administrative affairs related to school, and duty of attendance. According to Yong
(2010), - academic procrastination is an irrational tendency to delay at the beginning or
completion of an academic task. Many students intend to complete their academic tasks within
the time frame, but they lack the motivation to get started.
Academic procrastination is considered as a pervasive trait that can have mostly grave outcomes
for students, who are encountered by recurrent deadlines. Due to their constant delaying
behavior, academic procrastinators may have certain negative effects, such as low self-esteem,
hopelessness, and educational failure. Ellis and Knaus (2002) regard procrastination as an -
interactive dysfunctional and behavior avoidance process, characterized by the desire to avoid an
activity, the promise to get to it later, and the use of excuse making to justify the delay and avoid
blame. It may often be reinforced by achievement after last minute preparations, which leads to
believe in this approach as a practical technique. Ferrari (1991, 1992, and 2001) maintained that
academic procrastinators are unable to achieve educational ambitions due to avoidance of the
task at hand and fear of failure. Research has consistently demonstrated that procrastination is
one of the leading hindrances to academic performance of the students at various educational
levels.

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In literature, the causes of procrastination were investigated (Ferrari, 1992; McCown, Petzel, &
Rupert, 1987; Solomon & Rothblum, 1984). After the causes of procrastination were given, the
disabilities in time management were seen as the main reason. Having difficulty in concentrating
on a task and having a lower sense of responsibility are the other popular reasons of
procrastination. Moreover, anxiety and fear which are related to the negative perceptions
occurring when one expects the failure, irrational expectations about his/her own performance,
inaccurate cognitive processes, perfectionism (Balkıs, Duru, Buluş, & Duru, 2006), and lack of
motivation, poor organizational skills (Burka & Yuen, 1990; Milgram, Marshevsky, & Sadeh,
1995), and low self-efficacy (Haycock et al., 1998) are considered as the determinants of
procrastination.
TYPES OF PROCRASTINATORS
Implosive Procrastinator are those procrastinators who fail to pick up cues from the
environment because of the inability to delay gratification of pleasure, lacking self control,
lacking motivation for achieving targeted goals and lacking energy or organizational abilities.
Thus, this type of procrastination is often related to the problem of perceiving and estimating
time. Perfectionist procrastinator keeps themselves ready to work but avoid the activity. Such
procrastinators are therefore over-conscious and they tend to fear success or failure which
eventually leads to neurotic avoidance.
EFFECTS OF PROCRASTINATION
Students who suffer from procrastination which is an avoidance coping behavior often have
many problems with their academic performance. Effert and Ferrari (1989) demonstrate that
procrastinators may also be emotional, overwhelmed and anxious, having less need for cognitive
complexity and are more likely to attribute success to external and unstable factors (Solomon and
Rothblum, 1984).Procrastination may also have debilitating effect on students’ academic
performance. This is supported by Tice and Baummeister (1997) who find out that procrastinator
received significantly lower paper and examination grade than non- procrastinators.
COUNSELING STUDENTS WITH PROCRASTINATING ATTITUDE
Since procrastination is not simply a habit, but complex pattern of recurring behaviors which
includes emotions, thought, and actions and has comes habitual to the procrastinator, getting rid
of it will involve replacing, circumventing or deactivating each one of the habits by new habits.

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Getting rid of such a behavior may not be that easy because a simple decision could easily be
overwhelmed by the force of habit and such a decision need to be implemented as a habit itself
before it can compete effectively with the old habit. Thus, for a student to be able to confronts
and control his procrastinating behavior there will be need for counsellors to help students in
the following ways:
 Critically examine themselves: The first stage is for counsellors to help students to look
at themselves critically and determine the distractive and incompetent attributes that
negates their positive behaviors towards their academic activities.
 Instilling competence in students: Procrastination as a form of incompetence has to be
eliminated in order to cure it. Since incompetence is the opposite or lack of competence,
the only way to eliminate it is to be replaced with competence (Wikibooks, 2006).
Personal competence is comprised of five elements: emotional strength, well-directed
thoughts, time management skills, control over habits and task completion abilities
(Wikibooks, 2006).
 Inculcating ability to be well organized: A student may need to prepare a scale of daily
preferences dividing major projects which seems overwhelming into little pieces.
 Teaching students to start from simple to complex: A procrastinator may have to be
taught to start with the easiest task and proceed from there to a more rigorous and
demanding tasks.
CONCLUSION
Academic procrastination might have a detrimental impact on a student’s life due to the
multitude of examinations, term papers, and projects during his or her scholarly career. The
present article not only explained academic procrastination among students but also explained
how teachers can actively work to prevent procrastination and also provided some techniques
that faculty can take in order to heal from procrastination and return to their previous state of
health and pedagogical success. A teacher can help to avoid procrastination behavior in the
students. Teachers should encourage group assignments in which the group can be structured in
such a manner that it consists of both high and low procrastinators. Timely feedback and
required clarifications can be done at regular intervals.Strict deadlines with checkpoints along
the time frame can be provided to students to monitor their progress. Regular workshops and

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seminars can also be conducted on general level highlighting the positive effects of time
management and regularity and the ill effects of procrastination. We hope that the present article
offers a framework with which this can be achieved.
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