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Procrastination is a common form of self-regulatory failure with substantive connections to lower levels of health, wealth and well-being. Conducting an epidemiological study, we determined the characteristics of prototypical procrastinators from a global sample based on several relevant self-reported demographic variables. Using an internet sampling strategy, we surveyed 16 413 English-speaking adults (58.3% women; 41.7% men: M age = 38.3 years, SD = 14), specifically on the variables of sex, age, marital status, family size, education, community location, and national origin. Almost all the results were statistically significant because of our large sample size. However, procrastination tendencies were most prominently associated with sex, age, marital status, education and nationality. Procrastinators tended to be young, single men with less education, residing in countries with lower levels of self-discipline. Notably, procrastination mediated the relationship between sex and education, providing further support that men are lagging behind women academically because of lower self-regulatory skills. Given procrastination's connection with a variety of societal ailments (e.g. excessive debt, delayed medical treatment), identifying risk factors and at risk populations should be helpful for directing preventative public policy.

The authors examined the prevalence of and reasons, or excuses, for academic procrastination as a function of gender and academic grade level. In Study 1, a factor analysis of responses by 203 Turkish undergraduate students to an academic procrastination measure provided evidence of reliability and validity for the revised scale. In Study 2,784 students (363 women, 421 men; M age = 20.6 years, SD age = 1.74 years) completed the validated Turkish Procrastination Assessment Scale-Students. The results were that 52% of students self-reported frequent academic procrastination, with male students reporting more frequent procrastination on academic tasks than female students. Significantly more female students than male students reported greater academic procrastination because of fear of failure and laziness; male students reported more academic procrastination as a result of risk taking and rebellion against control than did female students.

No abstract

Oxford Houses are democratic, mutual help-oriented recovery homes for individuals with substance abuse histories. There are more than 1200 of these houses in the United States, and each home is operated independently by its residents, without help from professional staff. In a recent experiment, 150 individuals in Illinois were randomly assigned to either an Oxford House or usual-care condition (i.e., outpatient treatment or self-help groups) after substance abuse treatment discharge. At the 24-month follow-up, those in the Oxford House condition compared with the usual-care condition had significantly lower substance use, significantly higher monthly income, and significantly lower incarceration rates.

and Associates with a Foreword by Norman A. Milgram Discusses the historical origins, definition, and measurement of procrastination, as well as exploring its relationship with academic tasks, agitation, perfectionism, depression, passiveaggression, and obsessions-compulsions. Features previously unpublished data from the pioneering studies of Lay, Flett, Hewitt, and Schouwenburg. A volume in the Plenum Series in Social/Clinical Psychology

At four public meetings, 122 women and 89 men ( M age = 47.6 yr.) completed measures of Decisional, Avoidant, and Arousal Procrastination. About 20% of respondents (42 adults) claimed to be chronic procrastinators, with highest rates of all three procrastination types reported by members of the community (public) groups ( n = 64) compared to professional ( n = 54), business ( n = 59), and educational ( n = 34) employees. Respondents who had been married, i.e., separated, divorced, widowed, reported higher rates of procrastination (independent of number of children) than adults who were currently married or never married. Respondents with high-school education or less reported higher rates of decisional procrastination than individuals with college or postcollege educations.

Effects of cognitive load, objective self‐awareness and time limits on the self‐regulation of performance speed and accuracy were investigated between procrastinators and non‐procrastinators. In experiment 1 chronic procrastinators completed fewer items (slow speed) and made more errors (less accuracy) than non‐procrastinators under high but not low cognitive load conditions when the time span was limited and brief. In experiment 2 chronic procrastinators performed slower than non‐procrastinators under a 2 second, but not under no limit, 1 second, or 4 second time limit conditions. Chronic procrastinators compared to non‐procrastinators also performed more slowly and made more performance errors under objective self‐awareness conditions regardless of the length of time. These experiments indicate that chronic procrastinators regulate ineffectively their performance speed and accuracy when they ‘work under pressure’ (defined by high cognitive load, objective self‐awareness, and imposed time limitations). Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.