When Delay Diminishes Well-Being: Locus of Control as a Psychological Bridge Between Adolescent Procrastination and Life Satisfaction

Abstract

Adolescents' main self-regulatory problem is procrastination, and it affects their psychological well-being and health. This study used a mediation model of internal sense of agency to analyze the relationship between procrastination and life satisfaction in adolescents of Pakistan. The study was conducted on 800 school-going students in the age range of 13 – 19 years (Mean = 16.24 years, SD = 1.89) from secondary schools of Gujranwala in Pakistan, out of which 52% students were female and 48% were male. Three self-report scales were administered to all participants: the Pure Procrastination Scale (Steel, 2010), Locus of Control Scale (Rotter, 1966) and Multidimensional Students Life Satisfaction Scale (Huebner, 1994). For the mediation analysis, 5,000 iterations of resampling were used, following Preacher and Hayes (2008). The analysis showed that life satisfaction had a significant inverse correlation with procrastination (r = -.46, p <.01), and beliefs about external causality, a positive one (r =.49, p <.01). Further, there was a strong inverse correlation between life satisfaction scores and external causality beliefs (r = - .53, p < .01). The relationship was partially mediated by the indirect effect of procrastination on satisfaction (β = -0.31, SE =.05, 95-percent boot CI = -0.42, -0.22) and the effect accounted for 32.6 percent of the overall effect. Adolescents' beliefs of external causes partially mediate the relationship between their life satisfaction and procrastination. The conclusions indicate that there are immediate and indirect harmful effects of procrastination on people's subjective wellbeing, which increases external attribution and reduce people's sense of agency. Causality and procrastination interventions could be beneficial in improving adolescent life satisfaction.