Procrastination predictors and moderating effect of personality traits

Abstract

The present paper constitutes an attempt at finding out whether personality traits were moderate relationships between procrastination and its predictors. Students of the Faculty of Education and Psychology (N = 27) and Faculty of Economics (N = 20) participated in the study (total N = 47), 74,5% were women and 25,5% were men. Mean age was 20,28 years (min. = 19, max. = 24). Neither sex nor age differentiated the participants. The study confirmed interrelations of such personality traits as neuroticism, extraversion, and conscientiousness with procrastination, widely discussed in scientific literature. Other significant predictors of procrastination were fear of failure, low motivation and persistence, lack of time management, and preference for social life. Relationship of those variables with procrastination was positive, which meant that their higher index indicated a stronger tendency to delay tasks. High index of neuroticism moderated the relationship of low motivation and lack of time management with decisive procrastination. Moreover, high degree of conscientiousness moderated interrelations among fear of failure, evaluation anxiety, and behavioral procrastination.