Academic Procrastination: Prevalence and Causes from the Point of View of Undergraduate Students

Abstract

This study aimed at investigating the prevalence of
academic procrastination and it's cause from the point of view of the
undergraduate students, and whether these differed according to
students’ gender, academic level, or specialization. The sample
consisted of (751) undergraduate students (222 male, 529 female),
from all faculties of Yarmouk University. The results showed that
21.6% of participants exhibitede a high level of procrastination,
60.3% participants exhibited an average level, and 18.1% of them
exhibited a low level. Significant differences were found due to
academic level; procrastination level among fourth year was higher
than all other years, but no significant differences were found due to
students’ gender, or specialization. The result also showed that the
causes are order in this: fear of failure, instructor style, aversive task,
risk taking, resisting discipline control, and classmate pressure. The
results also revealed that levels of resisting discipline, risk taking,
classmate pressure were higher among male than female students. But
the level of fear of failure was higher among female than male
students. Finally, significant differences were found in the field of fear
of failure, classmate pressure, and instructor style due to different
academic levels.