Procrastination and Learned-Helplessness among University Students: The Mediation Effect of Internal Locus of Control

Introduction. Previous studies indicated that more than 70% university students committed academic procrastination, and one of the most prominent factors is learned helplessness, the perception that one is incapable of finishing tasks well. It was also hypothesized that when students believe that they are in control of their own events, their learned helplessness will not significantly predict their academic procrastination. This current study aims to test the hypothesis whether internal locus of control mediates the relationship between learned helplessness and academic procrastination among university students.Method. A total of 240 university students were randomly recruited to participate in this current study. Duttweiller’s Internal Control Scale was utilized to measure the internal locus of control, Pure Procrastination Scale (adapted for academic setting) was employed to measure the academic procrastination level and Learned Helplessness Scale was used to measure the level of learned helplessness among the participants. Multiple regression with PROCESS macros was employed to analyze the data.Results. Results indicated that learned helplessness signifcantly predicted internal locus of control, and that internal locus of control was a significant predictor of academic procrastination. These results support the mediational hypothesis. Learned helplessness was no longer a significant predictor of academic procrastination after controlling for the internal locus of control, consistent with full mediation. Approximately 21% of the variance in academic procrastination can be explained by the predictors. Indirect coefficient was significant. Learned helplessness was associated with approximately .15 points higher academic procrastination scores as mediated by internal locus of controlDiscussion and Conclusion. Internal locus of control fully mediates the influence of learned helplessness on academic procrastination. In other words, when students believe that they are in control of their events, the less likely they will procrastinate doing their tasks due to helplessness they have learned. Findings of this study suggested that procrastination in academic setting occurred due to the perception of helplessness that have been learned over time; nevertheless, the influence will not be that deteriorating towards the students when the they believe that they are responsible and in control of their events.