Procrastination: The Role of Interest: A quantitative study of individual interest role in student’s procrastination level

Abstract

Procrastination describes a phenomenon where people voluntarily delay working on a task despite being aware of potential negative consequences. It’s been associated with negative consequences related to performance, well-being, and physical and mental health. One potential solution research has somewhat neglected in procrastination research is Interest. What research exist on this topic indicates that interest is likely negatively related to procrastination. A scale that has not been properly tested yet is individual interest. We tested if we could get similar results as previous research with the use of individual interest scale. We also tested a new model inspired by previous research. In the present study the participants were 546 students answering an online questionnaire. We expected individual interest to have a negative relation to procrastination and other factors known to be associated with procrastination, specifically effort cost, lack of energy, and task aversion. The results showed procrastination had a significant negative correlation with effort cost (r= -0,36), lack of energy (r= -0,22), and task aversion (r= -0,36). Effort cost relation to procrastination is a new finding. The result also showed support to the new model. The most important implication was that individual interest which have not been properly tested before in relation to the other variables had a negative correlation to procrastination (r= -0,30). Practical implications of these findings are that measures that have been proven to increase individual interest will likely be relevant candidates for future intervention studies aimed at reducing procrastination. Keywords: Procrastination, interest, lack of energy, effort cost, task aversion