Higher-education course characteristics relate to academic procrastination: a multivariate two-level analysis

Abstract

Procrastination is a widespread phenomenon in higher education. Recently, specific aspects of the higher education course context have been theoretically linked to procrastination. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to integrate specific course characteristics (e.g., feedback structure, social norms, clarity of assignments), examine in which way they relate to procrastination, and if this relation can be explained by the satisfaction of basic needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence. We conducted a multivariate two-level study with a sample of 90 courses with 1,809 students from different faculties and semesters. Results imply that academic procrastination is associated with specific course characteristics to a considerable degree. Basic need satisfaction was negatively related to academic procrastination at a medium level on both, the individual student level as well as the course level. Moreover, basic need satisfaction explained the relations between specific course characteristics and procrastination.

Keywords:

• Academic procrastination
• higher education course characteristics
• basic need satisfaction
• autonomy
• relatedness
• competence

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Farah Bestler for her help during data collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by grants from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research awarded to Markus Dresel under grant number 01PX16011B.