"I'll go to therapy, eventually": Procrastination, stress and mental health

Abstract

Procrastination and stress are associated with poorer mental health, health problems, and treatment delay. We examine procrastination in the domain of mental health. Higher levels of procrastination and stress were predicted to correlate with poorer mental health status and fewer mental health help-seeking behaviours. Undergraduate participants (135 females, 65 males) completed online questionnaires on procrastination, stress, mental health issues, and mental health help-seeking behaviours. Three significant canonical correlations were obtained between the predictor variables of procrastination, stress, (with controls for age, gender, and social desirability) and the criterion mental health variables. The first canonical correlation supported the main hypothesis associating stress and procrastination with poorer mental health. The second suggested that greater age and female gender are positively correlated to mental health help-seeking. The third canonical correlation depicted reduced procrastination and reduced concern for social desirability as associated with a pattern of poorer mental health and increased mental health help-seeking behaviours. These findings are discussed with a view to addressing the discrepancy between the considerable extent of mental health suffering and the comparatively low levels of mental health help-seeking. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd.