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Prior Day Negative Affect Influences Current Day Procrastination: A Lagged Daily Diary Analysis
Shira Pollack1, Joanna Herres1
1Psychology Department, The College of New Jersey, Ewing, New Jersey, USA.
College students procrastinate more when they experience negative emotions. This study found that daily negative affect (NA) predicts future procrastination, but procrastination does not influence NA levels.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Behavioral Science
Background:
- Procrastination is prevalent in college students.
- Negative affect (NA), stress, and anxiety correlate with procrastination.
- The causal direction between affect and procrastination is not well understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the temporal relationship between daily affect and procrastination in college students.
- To determine if changes in negative affect (NA) or positive affect (PA) precede procrastination.
- To examine if procrastination precedes changes in daily affect.
Main Methods:
- Secondary data analysis of a larger study.
- Daily diary surveys administered to 53 college students over two weeks.
- Multilevel regression and cross-lag panel analysis to assess temporal precedence.
Main Results:
- Higher levels of daily negative affect (NA) predicted increased procrastination the following day.
- Procrastination did not predict subsequent changes in NA.
- Positive affect (PA) showed no significant association with procrastination when controlling for NA.
Conclusions:
- Negative emotions appear to be a significant motivator for procrastination behavior in students.
- Findings suggest interventions should focus on managing and regulating negative affect.
- Understanding the role of NA in procrastination can inform student support strategies.
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