Putting It Off: Exploring the Prevalence of Procrastination of Assignments by the Aversive Nature of High School Courses and Student Impulsivity

Abstract

Procrastination is the act of delaying or postponing a task.  Currently, procrastination is a serious issue among high school students as it can cause detrimental effects to work habits and contribute to poor health among students.  After a review of scholarly sources within the body of knowledge surrounding procrastination, it was determined that procrastination is caused by two main factors: aversiveness and impulsivity.  While there have been some studies determining the effects of procrastination in high schools, there was a gap in the body of research regarding a cause for procrastination in high school students.  As a result, a study was conducted in which 253 students were selected through English classes in a New York high school to complete a survey which identified whether class aversiveness and student impulsivity had differing effects on student procrastination among three different course types: AP, Honors, and Regents.  Three scales were used in the survey to record different statistical measures: the S-UPPS-P Behavior Scale for student impulsivity, the Perceived Stress Scale for class aversiveness, and a Student Procrastination Scale created by the investigator to measure student procrastination.  After use of unpaired t-tests, it was determined that there is no direct correlation between class aversiveness and student impulsivity to procrastination.