Original title: Procrastination among US college students: Prevalence and impact relative to common health and life issues
Researchers surveyed students at US colleges about 36 health and life issues, including procrastination. About 72 out of every 100 students said procrastination affected them, roughly tied with stress. About 45 out of every 100 said it harmed their academic performance, making it the issue most often linked to academic harm. Procrastination also caused significant distressA level of emotional strain that a person reports as serious. for about 46 out of every 100 students.
Imagine a class where everyone is asked which chores cause trouble at home. One chore keeps coming up, and students say it gets in the way of finishing their homework and causes real stress. In this paper, the chores are student health and life issues: procrastination is the one students most often report, and the survey compares how often it affects schoolwork and causes distress.
Students may face many pressures, but in this survey procrastination was reported more often than any other issue, tied with stress. It was also the issue most often linked to academic harm and significant distress, so colleges considering student support may need to take it seriously.
The abstract reports students' survey answers from 97 US institutions, but does not establish that procrastination caused academic harm or distress. It does not describe how the survey measured these effects, how representative the students were, or whether any intervention reduces procrastination.
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Procrastination among US college students: Prevalence and impact relative to common health and life issues — Itamar Shatz — PLoS ONE — doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0357714
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.