Investigating Academic Procrastination within the Framework of Temporal Motivation Theory: The Impact of Hopelessness and Academic Resilience

Academic procrastination represents a significant challenge frequently encountered among high school students, negatively impacting their academic outcomes. It is posited that levels of hopelessness and academic resilience may serve as predictors of academic procrastination. Consequently, the objective of this study is to examine the extent to which hopelessness and academic resilience predict academic procrastination among high school students. The study involved 625 participants, comprising 337 females (53.9%) and 288 males (46.1%), who were selected through a convenience sampling method from various high schools in a small city in Türkiye's Aegean Region during the 2023-2024 academic year. Participants' ages ranged from 13 to 18 years, with a mean age of 15.52 years (SD = 1.13). In order to assess academic procrastination, the researchers utilized the Academic Procrastination Scale. The Beck Hopelessness Scale was employed to evaluate levels of hopelessness, while the Academic Resilience Scale was used to measure academic resilience. Additionally, a Demographic Information Form was administered to gather relevant demographic data. Data analysis was conducted using IBM SPSS 27.0 software, implementing Pearson correlation analysis and multiple linear regression analysis methods. The study specifically tested whether hopelessness and academic resilience significantly predicted academic procrastination among the participants. The findings revealed that the independent variables accounted for 17.3% of the total variance in academic procrastination. While academic resilience was not identified as a predictor of academic procrastination, hopelessness emerged as a significant predictor. These findings suggest developing psychological support programs to reduce hopelessness and academic procrastination in high school students. Furthermore, training programs designed to enhance academic resilience and strengthen social support networks may assist students in better managing procrastination behaviors. The results of this study were discussed within the framework of existing literature, and pertinent recommendations were provided for both researchers and practitioners in the field.