Academic procrastination and academic engagement among dentistry students at a Peruvian university: a cross-sectional...

Academic procrastination is a common self-regulatory difficulty in higher education and may be related to how strongly students engage with academic work. This study examined the association between academic procrastination and academic engagement among dental students at a Peruvian university. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional analytical study using 426 complete records from the Lima, Chiclayo, and Arequipa campuses of Universidad de San Martín de Porres. Academic procrastination was represented by a 12-item PASS-derived score, and academic engagement by the 17-item UWES-Student total score and its vigor, dedication, and absorption dimensions. Internal consistency was estimated with Cronbach's alpha, and associations were evaluated using Spearman's rho with 95% bootstrap confidence intervals.

Cronbach's alpha was 0.954 for the procrastination score, 0.962 for total engagement, 0.912 for vigor, 0.883 for dedication, and 0.912 for absorption. Higher procrastination was moderately associated with lower total engagement (rho = -0.424, 95% CI -0.503 to -0.341; p < 0.001) and lower vigor (rho = -0.425, 95% CI -0.503 to -0.341; p < 0.001). Inverse associations were also observed for dedication (rho = -0.397, 95% CI -0.475 to -0.309; p < 0.001) and absorption (rho = -0.385, 95% CI -0.464 to -0.298; p < 0.001).

Greater academic procrastination was consistently associated with lower academic engagement in this multicampus sample. Because the study was cross-sectional and based on self-report, the findings do not establish causality or demonstrate that any form of procrastination is adaptive.