Comparison of Self-Esteem and Academic Procrastination among Male and Female Healthcare Undergraduates-A Comparative Study.

Objective: To validate the academic procrastination scale (APS) and Rosenberg Self- Esteem Scale (RSES) and to compare mean score of self- esteem and academic procrastination among male and female students of Southern Punjab.Methodology: This was the Cross-sectional study conducted among undergraduates of MBBS, Physiotherapy (DPT), Pharmacy (D-Pharmacy) and Allied Health Sciences (AHS) disciplines of private institute of Bahawalpur Medical College (BMC) from January till March-2024. The study tool was comprised of three sections. Section one was about demographic variables like gender, age, graduation program. APS of Tuckman and RSES was used to measure APS and SES in section two and three respectively. For data analysis SPSS version 27 was used. Normality of data was checked with Shapiro-Wilk test. Cronbach’s alpha was used to assess the validity of APS and RSES. P-value < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.Result: Total n=400 forms were distributed from which n=387 were included for data analysis with 93.6% of response rate There was total n=262 (67.7%) female and n=125 (32.3%) male students. Male students were found to be more procrastinator then female students (39.3 + 8.17) and (42.72 + 9.8) respectively. While comparing RSES, there was insignificant difference found. Male students had higher RSES score as compare to female students 27.93 + 4.6 and 28.6+ 4.50 respectively-table.3. APS was found to be validated tool at Cronbach’s alpha value of 0.821.Conclusion: Academic Procrastination Scale was found to be valid tool in local context. Lower APS was found among male students showed more procrastinators then female gender. Key Words: Academic Procrastination, Procrastination, Self-Esteem, undergraduates.