The Influence of Perfectionism on Procrastination in Online Graduate Education Students
Abstract: Both perfectionism and procrastination are prevalent among online students and detrimental to student performance and possibly to persistence in a degree program. It is important for online faculty to identify factors that may reduce students’ tendency to procrastinate. Because procrastination can lead to decreased academic performance, it is important to better understand the influence students’ perfectionism has on procrastination. The results indicated that higher levels of procrastination were likely to occur if a student described him or herself as being more of a perfectionist. Older students also appeared to also be at a greater risk for procrastination. Suggestions are provided for working with perfectionistic students, especially older perfectionistic students, to help reduce procrastination.