Impulsiveness as a mediator of the relationship between trait anxiety & procrastination among Korean students

The purpose of the current study was to investigate how trait anxiety and impulsiveness affect university students’ academic procrastination. This study also investigated the relations among anxiety, impulsiveness, and academic procrastination. For the study, 437 university students in South Korea completed measures of academic procrastination, impulsiveness and trait anxiety. Analyses were done by SEM (Structural Equation Modeling) with AMOS 18.0. Results in SEM illustrated that the relation between anxiety and academic procrastination were fully mediated by impulsiveness. In other words, anxiety affects procrastination indirectly by impulsiveness. From this study, significant counseling implications can be drawn. First, anxiety may not always be a direct cause of procrastination. Also, impulsiveness is the leading factor that makes anxious people procrastinate. This is because impulsive students pursue immediate gratification, neglecting longer term responsibilities. Therefore, counseling intervention focused on impulsiveness could be effective decrease students’ procrastination behaviors. Furthermore, it would prevent the vicious circle of anxiety and procrastination.