College students' personal epistemological beliefs as factors in academic procrastination

Understanding why individuals, who commonly have the best intentions to complete academic tasks, fail to complete those tasks in a timely manner has been a perennial focus of educational and psychological research on procrastination. An exploration of the relationship between personal epistemological beliefs or knowledge beliefs as factors in academic procrastination within achievement goal theory was undertaken. In a posttest only research design, traditional aged college students between the ages of 18 and 25 attending a small Midwestern private college were assessed with the Epistemic Beliefs Inventory (EBI) and the Procrastination Assessment Scale-Students (PASS). The research hypotheses that college students' personal epistemological belief scores would be predictive of criterion or outcome academic procrastination scores were supported. Correlational analysis suggested that as college students endorse less sophisticated or naive levels of epistemological beliefs they were also likely to endorse frequent and problematic academic procrastination. Statistically significant results of a simple linear regression suggested that a predictive relationship between the two variables existed. In hierarchical multiple regression, Simple Knowledge and Quick Learning accounted for a significant portion of the variance in the criterion variable. In the overall regression model, based on order of entry, Simple Knowledge was the only epistemological belief that was statistically predictive of academic procrastination. In light of the study, a multiple goals orientation within achievement goal theory was not advised. As epistemological beliefs may be important mediator or moderator variables in achievement motivation, their influence in academic procrastination and development to enhance self-regulated learning should continue to be ascertained.