A relação entre procrastinação acadêmica e perfeccionismo em estudantes de licenciatura de Piripiri - Piauí

Abstract

The present study addresses academic procrastination, understood as the voluntary act of postponing academic activities, and perfectionism, regarded as a personality trait whose main characteristic is the setting of high goals and performance standards for oneself. Thus, it starts from the following problem question: how are perfectionism and academic procrastination related in undergraduate students in the city of Piripiri, Piauí, considering the sociodemographic variables of gender, age, and semester? Therefore, the general objective of this research is to analyze the relationships between academic procrastination and perfectionism in undergraduate students in Piripiri (PI). The specific objectives are: (a) to identify the correlation between aspects of perfectionism and academic procrastination; (b) to verify how perfectionism can explain academic procrastination; and (c) to examine the associations between sociodemographic variables (gender, age, and semester) and levels of academic procrastination and perfectionism. Accordingly, this is characterized as a quantitative, correlational-causal, cross-sectional, ex post facto study, with non-probabilistic accidental sampling. The instruments used were the Tuckman Procrastination Scale, the Almost Perfect Scale – Revised, and sociodemographic questionary. Data were analyzed using SPSS software, version 23, through correlation and hierarchical regression analyses. A total of 234 students participated in the study, mostly young adults (Mage = 23.9 years), predominantly female (71.8%), enrolled in undergraduate programs in Pedagogy (45.7%), Portuguese Language and Literature (17.5%), Chemistry (16.2%), Physics (12%), and English Language and Literature (8.5%), mainly in the early stages of their programs (45.7%). The results indicated that perfectionism explained the variance in procrastinatory behaviors in the sample, with the adaptive dimension being positively correlated with academic procrastination and the maladaptive dimension being negatively correlated. Furthermore, when sociodemographic variables (gender, age, and semester) were considered, perfectionism explained 36.5% of procrastination. Thus, it was concluded that perfectionism accounts for procrastinatory behaviors among undergraduate students, such that those with stronger adaptive traits (high standards) procrastinate less, while those with stronger maladaptive traits (discrepancy) procrastinate more, with this relationship being more pronounced among students in the later stages of their programs. In light of these findings, the importance of promoting educational interventions aimed at student well-being and reducing procrastinatory behaviors in the university context is emphasized.