Internal Factors Contributing to Procrastination

Locus of control. Locus of control is defined as “the degree to which the individual

perceives that a reward follows from, or is contingent upon, his own behavior or

attributes versus the degree to which he feels the reward is controlled by forces outside

of himself and may occur independently of his own actions” (Rotter, 1966, p. 1).

According to Beretvas, Suizzo, Durham, and Yarnell (2008), perceiving an event as

contingent on one’s effort or ability marks an internal locus of control, whereas

perceiving it as contingent on luck, chance, fate, or the control of powerful others

indicates an external locus of control. Locus of control is rooted in social learning theory,

which states that when a behavior is reinforced, the expectancy that this behavior will

be similarly reinforced in the future is strengthened (Rotter, 1966). Reinforcements

perceived as outside of one's personal control are less likely to raise expectancies for

future reinforcements following successes that are perceived to be within one's personal

control.

To summarize, locus of control is the degree to which an individual perceives that a

reward follows from, or is contingent upon, his or her own behavior or attributes versus

the degree to which he or she feels the reward is controlled by forces outside of him or

herself.
External Factors Contributing to Procrastination

External factors contributing to procrastination are factors that originate outside of

people and which are associated with an increased likelihood of procrastination. One

external factor thought to contribute to procrastination is parenting style. According to

Baumrind (1971), there are three types of parenting styles: permissive, authoritarian,

and authoritative. Permissive parents are caregivers who make fewer demands on their

children than do other parents, and allow for their children to regulate their own activities

as much as possible. Authoritarian parents are caregivers who tend to be highly

directive with their children, and value unquestioning obedience in their exercise of

authority over their children. Being detached and less warm than other parents are

characteristics of an authoritarian parent. Authoritative parents are caregivers who fall

between these two extremes, and provide clear and firm direction for their children, but

disciplinary clarity is moderated by warmth, reasonable flexibility, and verbal give-and-

take.

https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?

article=2516&context=theses&fbclid=IwAR3A98nD0z8UowcK7rafMTg1XEKPXJbeb-

2uNyIbjs-pKOUzOU3lsulcmjI
The aim of this study was to investigate some of the antecedents of procrastination (fear
of failure, aversiveness of task, risk taking, rebellion against control, dependency, and
difficulty making decisions) in terms of the five factors of personality (Neuroticism,
Extraversion, Agreeableness, Openness and Conscientiousness). Procrastination has
been related to two of the major models in personality: the three factor model:
extraversion, psychoticism, and neuroticism (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1985) and the five-
factor model: neuroticism, extraversion, openness, conscientiousness and
agreeableness (Costa & McCrae, 1992).

With the three factor model, McCown, Petzel and Rupert (1987) found a linear
relationship between procrastination and extraversion, and a curvilinear relationship
between procrastination and neuroticism, the low and high neuroticism people having
higher procrastination scores.

With the five-factor model, procrastination has been related to low conscientiousness
and neuroticism. Recent investigations have applied Costa and McCrae’s (1992) facets
of the five-factor model to academic procrastination. According to Costa and McCrae
(1992), conscientiousness is composed of the facets: competence, order, dutifulness,
achievement striving, self-discipline, and deliberation. The neuroticism factor contains:
anxiety, angry hostility, depression, self-consciousness, impulsiveness, and
vulnerability. Lay, Kovacs and Danto (1998) found a relationship between low
conscientiousness and procrastination in school children age 7–11 years, indicating that
procrastination may be a pattern established early on in an individual’s academic
career. With young adults, Johnson and Bloom (1995) performed a facet level analysis
on the relationship between neuroticism, conscientiousness and procrastination. All the
conscientiousness facets were inversely related to procrastination with self-discipline
being the strongest predictor. The relationship to neuroticism was much weaker, with
impulsiveness and vulnerability being the strongest facet predictors of
procrastination. Schouwenberg and Lay (1995) analyzed trait procrastination in terms of
the complete set of five-factor facets and found similar results. Exceptions to this were a
negative relationship to the activity facet of extraversion and a positive correlation with
the fantasy facet of openness to experience. In another study, McCown and Johnson
(1991) also found that neuroticism was related to total procrastination scores along with
measures of lack of confidence in preparedness, anxiety and was inversely related to
total hours studying

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886900000192
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886914006898
In proposing that the higher‐order factor (lack of) Conscientiousness is the major

proximal source of the lower‐order trait procrastination, this study set up three

approaches to examine this question: the degree to which a measure of the factor

would parallel a measure of the trait in predicting dilatory behaviour and negative affect,

the degree to which the factor would replace the trait in these predictions, and the

extent to which the relations of the trait and the factor to negative affect would be

mediated by Neuroticism. University students, 232 females and 48 males, completed a

trait procrastination scale and the Conscientiousness and Neuroticism factor scales of

the NEO‐PI‐R. They also responded to a measure of dilatory behaviour concerning their

academic work, and to a measure of negative affect involving dejection and agitation.

Trait procrastination was negatively related to the Conscientiousness factor and to each

of its facets. Relations of trait procrastination and of Conscientiousness tended to

parallel one another. Indicative of the specificity dilemma, trait procrastination

outperformed Conscientiousness in predicting trait‐specific dilatory behaviour. On the

other hand, Conscientiousness was the better predictor of dejection. The mediating role

of Neuroticism tended to be comparable in linking both the trait and the factor to

negative affect. Discussion centres on additional ways to overcome the specificity

dilemma when attempting to locate the proximal source of a lower‐order trait within a

higher‐order factor. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/(SICI)1099-

0984(199711)11:4%3C267::AID-PER281%3E3.0.CO;2-P

INDEPENDENT VARIABLE DEPENDENT VARIABLE

 No savings  Economic hardship

 Lack of available jobs  Unavailability to pay
 Bills/payments miscellaneous fees
 Arising rate of  Financial stress
unemployment  Financially indebted
 Bankruptcy due to pandemic  Sacrificing priorities
 Decrease of clients  Inability to enter prominent
schools

EFFECT OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC TO

THE FINANCIAL SITUATION OF SENIOR
HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ FAMILY: AN
ANALYSIS