The Prevalence of Academic Procrastination among Students of the School of Rehabilitation Sciences at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences

Background: Academic procrastination is an irrational tendency to delay starting or completing academic tasks. It is reportedly associated with negative emotions, psychological distress, a sense of failure, guilt, lower levels of self-regulated learning and self-efficacy, and unsatisfactory academic performance. Academic procrastination is a common phenomenon among university students. Therefore, this study was designed to investigate the prevalence of academic procrastination among students at the School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences.Methods: All university students (a total of 368), including 230 (62.5%) females and 138 (37.5%) males, voluntarily participated in this cross-sectional descriptive study. The participants were undergraduate and postgraduate students from different academic levels across five departments. The mean age of students was 21.66 ± 2.27 years. To ascertain the prevalence of procrastination, we used the Solomon and Rothblum Academic Procrastination Questionnaire. This questionnaire consists of 27 items designed to measure three areas: preparing for exams, preparing assignments, and preparing the final paper. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficient, one-way ANOVA, and independent t-tests were applied. A p-value less than 0.05 was regarded as statistically significant.Results: A total of 297 students completed all items on the procrastination questionnaire. Among the participants, 44.2% reported being moderate procrastinators, and 54.5% reported severe procrastination behaviors. Specifically, 40.9% of males reported moderate procrastination, while 57.3% reported severe procrastination. Among females, 46% reported moderate procrastination, and 52.9% exhibited severe procrastinator behaviors. Furthermore, 42.5% of undergraduate students reported a tendency toward moderate procrastination, while 56% exhibited severe procrastination behaviors. Among postgraduates, 58.1% reported moderate procrastination, and 41.9% reported severe procrastination behaviors. In addition, academic procrastination was prevalent across all components of the questionnaire, with undergraduate students exhibiting significantly higher procrastination levels in preparing assignments (P < 0.05).Conclusion: Academic procrastination behaviors were equally prevalent across all educational levels, disciplines, and sexes. Students exhibited tendencies towards procrastination across all components of academic procrastination. These findings may help institutions develop more effective intervention strategies to mitigate the impact of academic procrastination and improve academic achievement.