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The purpose of this study was to investigate the antecedents and consequences of academic procrastination in students who frequent university counselling in regard to this issue. To undertake this, semi-structured interviews with 12 experienced university counsellors in German universities were conducted. A qualitative content analysis resulted in two category systems-antecedents and consequences. Whereas the antecedents were differentiated into nine categories and 30 themes, the consequences were differentiated into 10 categories and 20 themes. The findings indicated that the antecedents and consequences were largely a reflection of the students' characteristics, their personal and learning situations, and the university environment. A layer model is discussed as a heuristic model for future research and for university counselling services.

We assumed that situations of motivational want conflict (i.e., feeling that one wants to do something else) and should conflict (i.e., thinking that one should do something else) show differential relationships to different components of well-being because more affective or more cognitive motivational aspects are ignored, respectively. Moreover, we assumed that these differences contribute to the understanding of different self-regulatory styles. Using an experience-sampling approach, 58 university students indicated their current affect, the underlying form of motivation, and whether they experienced a want or a should conflict regarding their daily activities (N = 2376). Furthermore, we assessed participants' self-control and mindfulness before and life satisfaction after the experience-sampling period. As expected, want conflicts came along with lower affective well-being, but were unrelated to cognitive life satisfaction. Although should conflicts also yielded a small, negative association with some aspects of affective well-being, overall, their negative relation with life satisfaction was more pronounced. Positive paths of self-control on affective well-being were mediated via less want and should conflicts, whereas positive paths of both mindfulness and self-control on life satisfaction were mediated via less should conflicts. The relative importance of want and should conflicts in daily self-regulation and wellbeing is discussed.

The intraindividual process of study dropout, from forming dropout intention to deregistration, is of motivational nature. Yet typical studies investigate interindividual differences, which do not inform about intraindividual processes. Our study focused on the intraindividual process of forming dropout intention, and applied expectancy-value theory to analyze its motivational underpinnings. To expand research, we considered associations of intraindividual deviations in expectancy, intrinsic value, attainment value, utility value, and cost to intraindividual deviations in dropout intention. A total of 326 undergraduate students of law and mathematics rated motivational variables and dropout intention three times from semester start to the final exam period. Multilevel regression analyses revealed that intraindividual changes in intrinsic value, attainment, and cost, but not in expectancy and utility, related to intraindividual changes in dropout intention. Further, we considered students' demographics as moderators. Only age moderated the association between intrinsic value and dropout intention. Our results stress the crucial role of certain value components, including cost, for emerging dropout intention.

Student dropout is a multi-causal process. Different theoretical models on student dropout consider dysfunctional study behavior (e.g., academic procrastination) and low study satisfaction as possible determinants of students’ dropout intentions during their university studies. However, these models neglect contemporary conceptualizations that assume reverse relationships between dropout intentions and other determinants of the dropout process. Until now, empirical evidence on these assumptions is scant. The present three-wave longitudinal study explored the reciprocal relationships between academic procrastination, study satisfaction, and dropout intentions over one semester. To this end, we used data of N = 326 undergraduate students enrolled in mathematics and law. Our latent cross-lagged panel model replicated existing empirical cross-sectional findings between the variables (i.e., academic procrastination, study satisfaction, and dropout intentions). Regarding the longitudinal relations, as expected, the cross-lagged effects showed that higher dropout intentions significantly related to subsequent higher academic procrastination and lower study satisfaction. Unexpectedly, academic procrastination did not significantly relate to subsequent dropout intentions. Additionally, higher study satisfaction significantly associated with subsequent higher dropout intentions—possibly due to unfulfilled expectations. Further, higher study satisfaction significantly related to subsequent higher procrastination—possibly due to more confidence among satisfied students. Our results broaden the view on dropout intentions as part of the dynamic interplay of student dropout determinants and the need to refine dropout models’ assumptions accordingly. Practically, realistic expectations seem important to reduce dropout intentions. Further, student counselors should have a closer look at the reasons for academic procrastination to develop individual solutions for this dysfunctional behavior.