Why Perfectionistic Students Procrastinate: The Mediating Role of Fear of Failure

Abstract

Academic procrastination is a familiar challenge for university students and is currently perceived as an emotional and self-regulatory issue rather than a time-management issue. The current research aim was to investigate the role of fear of failure in the relationship between maladaptive perfectionism and academic procrastination in undergraduate students. The cross-sectional correlational design was used. The sample comprised 301 undergraduate students aged 18-25 years from various professional fields. The participants filled out questionnaires on maladaptive perfectionism, fear of failure, and academic procrastination. Descriptive data analysis, Pearson correlation, hierarchical regression, and mediation analysis (PROCESS Model 4) were used for the analysis of the data. Maladaptive perfectionism was significantly and positively correlated with fear of failure and academic procrastination. Academic procrastination was also positively and significantly related to fear of failure. Featuring maladaptive perfectionism and fear of failure, the hierarchical regression model showed that both these factors significantly predicted academic procrastination after controlling for age, gender, and academic performance, accounting for an additional 13.3% of the variance in academic procrastination. The mediation analysis indicated an indirect association between maladaptive perfectionism and academic procrastination via fear of failure, B = 0.118, BootSE = 0.050, 95% CI [0.036, 0.227]. Results showed partial mediation of the direct effect of maladaptive perfectionism on academic procrastination, as it was still significant. The results indicate that perfectionistic learners might engage in parts of academic procrastination due to self-worth concerns regarding failure, negative evaluations, and fear of errors that are triggered by academic tasks.