Original title: Students’ motivational self-regulation, procrastination, and sociodemographic characteristics in a Honduran academic context
David Jan, Jean-Louis Berger, Sara Da Silva, Cristian Calderón Manuel Baca +1 · September 2026
Many college students struggle with procrastination, which means putting off tasks they need to do. Most research on study habits comes from wealthy, Western nations, so we know less about students elsewhere. Researchers surveyed 581 university students in Honduras to see how they stay motivated. They focused on motivational self-regulation, which means using mental strategies to keep yourself working, like talking yourself through goals. The study found that students who actively managed their motivation procrastinated less. Age also mattered the most among student backgrounds: older students put off work less often, partly because they used better motivation strategies. Gender had a small indirect link through motivation, while family income and education level showed no links. However, students with past academic failures procrastinated more, and motivation strategies did not change that connection.
Imagine you're trying to study for an exam but keep getting distracted by your phone. You know you should focus, but you don't always have the right tricks to get yourself back on track. Some people naturally develop those tricks as they get older, while others struggle more if they've failed before. In this paper, the researchers looked at how students in Honduras use motivational tricks (like reminding themselves why the exam matters) to avoid procrastination, and found that age and past failures play a big role in how well those tricks work.
For university students in Honduras, procrastination isn't just about time management—it's about how they regulate their own motivation. This study shows that older students naturally do this better, while younger students and those with past academic failures struggle more. Educators can use this to design support that builds motivational skills early, especially for students who have already fallen behind.
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Students’ motivational self-regulation, procrastination, and sociodemographic characteristics in a Honduran academic context — David Jan, Jean-Louis Berger, Sara Da Silva et al. — EdArXiv — doi:10.35542/osf.io/q4jde_v1
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper. This is a preprint, so it hasn't necessarily been peer reviewed.