Impact of achievement goals on academic achievement: mediating role of procrastination and moderating role of loneliness

Purpose Academic procrastination is prevalent among university students and adversely affects academic performance. This research intends to explore the direct relationship between various achievement goals and academic procrastination and also determine the role of academic procrastination as the mediator between achievement goals and academic achievement. Also, it examines the moderating role of loneliness in the relationship between academic procrastination and academic achievement. Design/methodology/approach The methodology of this paper applied a cross-sectional and causal research design. To gather responses from Northern Indian Region university students, the study created an English language survey. The analysis for this study was done using structural equation modelling (SEM), which necessitated a sample size of at least 300. After data cleaning, 513 complete responses—out of the 555 total responses received—were used in the study. Findings The study reveals that performance approach and mastery approach goals reduce academic procrastination, whereas performance-avoidance and mastery-avoidance enhance academic procrastination. The analysis revealed that academic procrastination mediated the association between achievement goals and academic performance. In addition, the study also shows that loneliness moderates the association between academic procrastination and academic achievement. Originality/value The paper examined a unique conceptual framework, including learning goals, loneliness, academic procrastination and academic achievement. The study not only improves past theoretical models concerning antecedents of academic achievements in university students but also makes a necessary contribution to educational psychology from a learning and behavioural perspective.