Relationship Between Academic Procrastination, Well-Being, and Grades: the Mediational Role of Self-Regulation and Bad Habits

Abstract

Psychological research, nowadays, on the areas of student´s health and well-being has shown interesting results where the central constructs are self-regulation and procrastination. Self-regulation behavior is a meta-skill that includes cognitive, affective, and motivational aspects of the individuals. Procrastination can be defined as a meta-skill (a self-regulatory failure) that implies active de-regulatory conduct. The evidence points out that self-regulation contributes to the prediction of well-being, health, and academic procrastination. This study aims to establish procrastination´s direct and indirect effects on students´ well-being and academic performance, being self-regulation and bad habits the mediators. A total of 710 college students from 16 to 53 years of age took part (Average of 20.8 and SD 4.3), 224 (31.5%) were men and 486 (68.5%) women. Two mediational analyses were carried out. Results indicate the significance of the proposed model as procrastination does not directly affect the student´s psychological well-being or academic performance. The conclusions point out that procrastination indirectly affects students´ well-being, academic performance, and bad habits, being self-regulation a mediating variable. The possible theoretical, methodological, and psychoeducational intervention implications are discussed.