Relationships Among Self-esteem,Self-determined Motivation,Self-efficacy For Self-regulation And Academic Procrastination In Health Professions Undergraduates

Objectives:To investigate the prevalence of academic procrastination in health professions undergraduates,to explore relationships among self-esteem,self-determined motivation,self-efficacy for self-regulation and academic procrastination,and to examine the mediation effects of self-determined motivation and self-efficacy for self-regulation between self-esteem and academic procrastination.So as to provide the basis for designing intervention strategies to prevent and reduce academic procrastination in health professions undergraduates.Methods:A convenience sampling of 1184 health professions undergraduates was recruited in a medical school from September 2016 to January 2017.Data was collected with the Procrastination Assessment Scale-Students(PASS),the Academic Motivation Scale College Version(AMS-C),the Self-esteem Scale(SES),the Self-efficacy for Self-regulated Learning(SESRL),and a sociodemographic questionnaire.Statistical analysis was conducted with SPSS 21.0.Results:1.Academic procrastination in health professions undergraduatesAmong the 1184 undergraduates,525(44.3%)reported general academic procrastination tendencies.For six academic tasks,54.8%reported that they procrastinated on performing school activities in general,48.6%procrastinated on studying for an exam,42.9%procrastinated on keeping up with weekly assignments,37.0%procrastinated on writing a term paper,28.6%procrastinated on performing administrative tasks,and 17.4%procrastinated on attending meetings.The total score for academic procrastination was(34.94±8.01).and scores for the six academic tasks were presented as follows:the score for procrastination on performing school activities in general was(6.77±2.06),the score for procrastination on studying for an exam was(6.29±2.14),the score for procrastination on keeping up with weekly assignments was(6.16±1.95),the score for procrastination on writing a term paper was(5.83±2.00),the score for procrastination on performing administrative tasks was(5.44±2.10),the score for procrastination on attending meetings was(4.44±2.10).2.Differences of academic procrastination in socio-demographic characteristics among health professions undergraduatesFemale undergraduates had significantly higher scores for procrastination on performing school activities in general,studying for an exam,keeping up with weekly assignments and writing a term paper than male undergraduates(P<0.05 or P<0.01).Sophomore undergraduates had significantly higher scores for procrastination on performing school activities in general,studying for an exam and keeping up with weekly assignments than junior undergraduates(all P<0.01);Senior undergraduates had significantly higher scores for procrastination on keeping up with weekly assignments than junior undergraduates(P<0.05),and had significantly higher scores for procrastination on attending meetings than sophomore undergraduates(P<0.01).Undergraduates from countryside or county had significantly higher scores for procrastination on studying for an exam than undergraduates from city(P<0.05 or P<0.01).Undergraduates with poor or general family economic status had significantly higher total scores for procrastination and higher procrastination scores for studying for an exam and attending meetings than undergraduates with rich family economic status(P<0.05 or P<0.01).3.Relationships among self-esteem,self-determined motivation,self-efficacy for self-regulation and academic procrastination in health professions undergraduatesThe score for self-esteem(27.34±4.26)was negatively correlated with the total score for academic procrastination(r=-0.220,P<0.01).The score for self-determined motivation(3.27±2.81)was negatively correlated with the total score for academic procrastination(r=-0.189,P<0.01).The score for self-efficacy for self-regulation(45.16±9.81)was negatively correlated with the total score for academic procrastination(r=-0.442,P<0.01).In addition,the score for self-esteem was positive correlated with the scores for self-determined motivation and self-efficacy for self-regulation(r=0.471,0.396,both P<0.01).4,Multiple hierarchical regression analysis of academic procrastination in health professions undergraduatesAcademic procrastination was entered as the dependent variable,family economic status was entered as the controlled variable,self-esteem,self-determined motivation and self-efficacy for self-regulation were entered step by step as independent variables.After the inclusion of self-determined motivation in the regression model,the absolute regression coefficient of self-esteem on academic procrastination was reduced from 0.212 to 0.162.After the inclusion of self-efficacy for self-regulation,the absolute regression coefficient of self-esteem on academic procrastination was reduced again from 0.162 to 0.046.Therefore,self-determined motivation and self-efficacy for self-regulation were the potential mediators between self-esteem and academic procrastination.5.The mediation effect of self-determined motivationThe indirect effect of self-esteem on academic procrastination through self-determined motivation was-0.106(95%bootstrap confidence intervals:-0.174 to-0.039).When both self-esteem and self-determined motivation were entered simultaneously as predictors of academic procrastination,self-esteem could negatively predict academic procrastination(B=-0.349,P<0.01),which indicated that the relationship between self-esteem and procrastination was partly mediated by self-determined motivation.6.The mediation effect of self-efficacy for self-regulationThe indirect effect of self-esteem on academic procrastination through self-efficacy for self-regulation was-0.345(95%bootstrap confidence intervals:-0.422 to-0.275).When both self-esteem and self-efficacy for self-regulation were entered simultaneously as predictors of academic procrastination,self-esteem could no longer predict academic procrastination(B=-0.110,P>0.05),which indicated that the relationship between self-esteem and procrastination was fully mediated by self-efficacy for self-regulation.Conclusions:1.The prevalence of academic procrastination in health professions undergraduates is pretty high,which should concern educators in health professions,and interventions should be developed to improve academic procrastination.2.Academic procrastination decreased with the increase of self-esteem,which suggests that educators should take measures to enhance self-esteem of health professions undergraduates.3.Self-esteem could affect academic procrastination partly through self-determination motivation,which suggests educators could reduce academic procrastination by enhancing undergraduates' self-esteem and self-determined motivation.4.Self-esteem could affect academic procrastination fully through self-efficacy for self-regulation,which suggests educators could enhance undergraduates'self-efficacy for self-regulation to reduce academic procrastination,or promote their self-esteem to enhance self-efficacy for self-regulation.and then reduce academic procrastination.