ACADEMIC SELF-EFFICACY, GENDER AND ACADEMIC PROCRASTINATION

Abstract

Academic procrastination has been described as a behaviour in which academic tasks such as preparing for exams, preparing term papers, administrative affairs related to school and duty of attendance are postponed till other time. Research findings have supported the fact that this habit occurs as a result of either failure in self-regulation (passive procrastination) or utilitarian purposes (active procrastination). This study therefore explored the prevalence of academic procrastination and prevalent type of procrastinators among the undergraduate students. It also examined the difference in academic self-efficacy of passive and active undergraduate procrastinators, and as well examined gender association between passive and active undergraduate procrastinators. It further determined gender difference in procrastinatory behaviour of university undergraduates. A descriptive survey design was adopted. A total of 200 undergraduate students randomly selected from five faculties from University of Ilorin constituted the sample size for this study. Three research instruments that were used to collect data for this study were College Academic Self-Efficacy Scale (CASES), Tuckman Academic Procrastination Scale (TAPS) and Active Procrastination Scale. Results revealed that 29.0% of the undergraduate students were procrastinators and 51.7% of the procrastinators were passive type. No significant difference was found in academic self-efficacy of passive and active procrastinators, t (56) = 1.038, p > .05, and gender was not significantly associated with passive and active undergraduate procrastinators, χ2 (n = 58) = 1.752, df = 1, p = .186. It was also found that no significant gender difference existed in procrastinatory behaviour of male and female university undergraduates, t (56) = .168, p > .05. This study concludes that most of the university undergraduates that engage in procrastinatory behaviour are passive in nature and neither academic self-efficacy nor gender of the students was a significant factor in their procrastinatory behaviour.