The relationship between procrastination and psychological well-being: the mediating role of emotional competence and life satisfaction

The present study was conducted with the aim of studying the mediating role of emotional competence and life satisfaction in the relationship between academic procrastination and psychological well-being of students. The research was of a descriptive-correlation type and the statistical method was path analysis. The research population was 2500 university students of Mazandaran province in the academic year of 1998-99, who were selected by random cluster sampling method, 326 people. The research tools were Solomon and Roth Bloom's academic procrastination questionnaire (1984), Scott Hubner's multidimensional student satisfaction scale (2001), Riff's psychological well-being (1989) and Warr's Emotional Competence Scale (1990). The findings showed that academic procrastination has a direct, negative, and significant relationship with emotional competence (r=-0.41). Academic procrastination has a direct, negative and significant relationship with psychological well-being (r=-0.39). Life satisfaction has a direct, positive and significant relationship with psychological well-being (r=0.35). Emotional competence has a direct, positive and significant relationship with psychological well-being (r=0.38). Emotional competence has a direct, positive and significant relationship with life satisfaction (r=0.31). Academic procrastination has an indirect, negative and significant relationship with psychological well-being through the reduction of emotional competence. It is concluded that students' procrastination harms their emotional competence, and if emotional competence is associated with life satisfaction and effective communication with family, friends, university environment, positive self-image and acceptance and commitment, psychological well-being increases. The practical suggestion is that education specialists hold educational workshops in order to evaluate the levels of academic procrastination and learn about the psychological needs of this group of students, to prepare them for a better academic life and personal life satisfaction. The research proposal is to test and study this relationship among students of other universities in the conditions of the Corona crisis and after.