Celebrados, Kalvin Art R.

GED0112 -Sec16

FA: Inquiry on Abstracts

Article: “Why Students Procrastinate: A Qualitative Approach”

ABSTRACT

Procrastination is a huge topic of research that has progressed in recent decades. Majority of
procrastination research concentrated on academic procrastination. Procrastination hinders academic
success, and damages development in college. Procrastination reduces learning while simultaneously
intensifies the severity of health-related problems, and decreasing financial stability. Most interventions
on procrastination focused on teaching and therapeutic strategies. The purpose of this study was to
lengthen the current understanding of academic procrastination, and to provide new concepts for college
personnel who aids procrastinating students and design interventions for procrastination. This study
searched antecedents of academic procrastination in an impartial way, avoiding theoretical bias. The
researchers implemented a qualitative approach, conducting and analyzing interviews obtained from a
student sample to ensure a thorough exploration of antecedents and attend to the actual voices and
experiences of students. Participants included 29 students attending a German university (11 males, 18
females). Interviewers recruited the participants in the university seeking variety of study fields and other
factors. To investigate the antecedents of procrastination, interviewers searched past procrastination
experiences by questioning. Interviews are transcribed by research assistants, then segmented the
interviews into idea units. The researchers developed a category system, following a deductive–inductive
process of qualitative content analysis. They started coding with a minor set of interviews that covered a
limited set of themes. The coders classified 582 segments from the 29 interviews into themes related to
antecedents of academic procrastination. Personal antecedents include all aspects that were primarily
associated with the personal attributes of the interviewee. Situational antecedents incorporate all aspects
that were primarily traceable to situational factors and factors beyond the personal attributes of the
interviewee. Researchers have identified several situational antecedents of academic procrastination. The
situational antecedents category had a similar impact, in terms of the number of segments, as personal
antecedents.