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The Relationship between Perfectionism and Mindfulness with Students’ Academic Procrastination: The Mediating Role of Self-Esteem

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Department of Psychology, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran

10.30476/smsj.2025.101198.1481

Abstract

Introduction: Academic procrastination is a prevalent challenge within educational systems, constituting a pervasive and detrimental factor that adversely affects students’ academic performance. This study aimed to investigate the indirect effect of perfectionism and mindfulness on academic procrastination, mediated by self-esteem.
Methods: This applied, descriptive-correlational study was conducted on a statistical population of all medical students at Kerman University of Medical Sciences (Kerman, Iran) during the 2022-2023 academic year (n=5,391). Using the Krejcie and Morgan table, a sample size of 350 participants was determined. Sampling was performed via a convenience method across various faculties and academic levels. Data were collected using Tehran’s Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, the Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire, the Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem Scale, and Solomon and Rothblum’s Academic Procrastination Questionnaire. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation and path analysis, in SPSS software (version 26) and LISREL software (version 8.8).
Results: The findings indicated that self-oriented perfectionism had a significant positive indirect effect on academic procrastination through self-esteem (P=0.01), while other-oriented perfectionism demonstrated a significant negative indirect effect (P=0.01). However, socially-prescribed perfectionism did not exhibit a significant indirect effect on academic procrastination mediated by self-esteem. Furthermore, mindfulness was found to have a significant negative indirect effect on academic procrastination through the mediation of self-esteem (P=0.01).
Conclusion: Enhancing levels of self-esteem and mindfulness, along with fostering the adaptive aspects of perfectionism, could reduce academic procrastination. By focusing on these cognitive and personality structures, practitioners could implement necessary measures for the prevention and treatment of academic procrastination.

Keywords

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