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. 2024 May 25;16(5):e61033. doi: 10.7759/cureus.61033

Table 2. Reasons for procrastination reported by the students (N=347).

SD: standard deviation

Sl. no Major domains of procrastination Sub-domains Score, mean ± SD
1 Evaluation anxiety Worried about getting a bad grade 3.20 ± 1.51
Concerned professor wouldn’t like your work 2.92 ± 1.41
2 Perfectionism Set very high standards yourself and worry that won’t be able to meet those standards 3.03 ± 1.51
Concerned you won’t meet your own expectations 3.03 ± 1.45
3 Difficulty making decisions Hard time knowing what to include and not to include in your paper 3.19 ± 1.34
Couldn’t choose among all the topics 2.80 ± 1.29
4 Laziness Didn’t have enough energy to begin the task 2.88 ± 1.49
Just felt too lazy to write a term paper 3.02 ± 1.48
5 Time management Had too many other things to do 3.14 ± 1.44
Felt overwhelmed by the task 2.73 ± 1.28
6 Lack of assertion Need to ask the professors for information, but felt uncomfortable approaching them 3.05 ± 1.41
Difficulty in requesting information from other people 2.78 ± 1.44
7 Dependency Waited to see if the professor would give some more information about the paper 2.71 ± 1.41
Waited until a classmate did his/hers to get some advice 2.94 ± 1.39
8 Task aversion Disliked writing a term paper 2.70 ± 1.47
Felt too long to write a term paper 2.81 ± 1.34
9 Low self-esteem Didn’t trust yourself to do a good job 2.46 ±1.49
Didn’t think you knew enough to write the paper 2.85 ± 1.37
10 Risk-taking Looked for the excitement of risk-taking this task at the last minute 2.68 ± 1.51
Liked the challenge of waiting until the deadline 2.55 ± 1.56
11 Rebellion against control Resented people setting deadlines for you 2.52 ± 1.42
Resented to do things assigned by others 2.63 ± 1.38
12 Peer pressure Knew that your classmates hadn’t started the paper either 2.78 ± 1.42
Friends were pressuring you to do other things 2.37 ± 1.41
13 Fear of failure Concerned that if you got a good grade, people would have higher expectations of you in the future 2.60 ± 1.49
Concerned that if you did well, your classmates would resent you 2.31± 1.39