Academic procrastination in university students: A systematic review of the literature

Abstract

Academic procrastination is the postponement of tasks related to studies: doing work, reading texts, studying for exams, among others. This article aimed to perform a systematic review of the literature about academic procrastination in university students, from 2008 to 2017. Three databases were chosen: SciELO, BvSalud and BvsPsi, with the combination of the descriptors “procrastination”, “university students”, “college students”, “undergraduate students”, “academic procrastination” was used, as well as derivations in Portuguese and Spanish. From the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 11 complete articles were selected. Most of the works pointed out the harmful nature of procrastinatory behavior, its relationship with the self-regulation of learning, as well as the difference in the study strategies used by procrastinating and non-procrastinating students. It was concluded that research about the theme is still incipient in the Brazilian context, requiring further exploration by researchers, with possible impacts for understanding the phenomenon and developing interventions with higher education students.