Survey of 65,950 US students identifies procrastination as the main factor hurting academic performance

An analysis of survey data from 65,950 students across 97 US higher education institutions revealed that procrastination is the leading factor negatively affecting academic performance. The study, published in PLoS ONE, examined student responses from the American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment (ACHA-NCHA). According to the results, procrastination affected the academic outcomes of 45.4% of all surveyed participants plos.orgPLoS ONEplos.orgOpen source ↗.

Among the 36 life and health factors assessed, procrastination was reported by 72.3% of students, functionally tying with stress as the most common issue. When looking specifically at individuals who experienced procrastination, 62.7% reported that it harmed their academic work. The authors noted that procrastination damaged performance several times more often than finances (2.8 times) or ADHD (3.5 times) within the overall student population.

Impact on distress

Procrastination was also documented as the most frequent source of significant distress among non-academic life issues. It caused distress in 45.7% of all surveyed students, representing 63.2% of those who experienced it. By comparison, this surpassed other factors such as concerns regarding academic issues in general (38.9%), personal appearance (31.8%), finances (30.8%), and career development (29.6%).

Student demographics

The research indicated that the prevalence and impact of procrastination were higher among undergraduate students. However, the author highlighted that it remained a primary challenge among graduate and professional students as well plos.orgPLoS ONEplos.orgOpen source ↗. While specific conditions like ADHD showed a marginally higher per-capita rate of academic impairment among the subset of students diagnosed with it (64.1%), procrastination had a far greater population-level impact due to its wider spread across universities.