Why Are You Waiting? Procrastination on Academic Tasks Among Undergraduate and Graduate Students

Academic procrastination is understood as the postponement of academic tasks despite the possibility of negative consequences, with an estimated 46% of undergraduate students and 60% of graduate students regularly engaging in this behavior. The purpose of the present study was to contrast procrastination behavior on specific academic tasks (writing term papers, studying for exams, keeping up with weekly readings) between undergraduate (n = 354) and graduate students (n = 816), as well as examine the perceived reasons for this procrastination behavior. MANOVA results showed that undergraduate students reported greater perceived prevalence of procrastination than graduate students with respect to studying. Principal component analyses further revealed different components for undergraduate and graduate students, including fear of failure and task aversiveness for undergraduate students, and fear of failure and lack of assertiveness for graduate students.