Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Research in Education, Teaching and Learning, 2024
Year: 2024
DOI:
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Understanding Academic Procrastination and Burnout: The Role of Meaning in Life
Tajana Ljubin Golub, Lana Jurčec, Majda Rijavec
ABSTRACT:
Academic procrastination is a widely prevalent behaviour, therefore worth studying in higher education. However, there is no research on the relationship between meaning in life and academic procrastination. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between meaning in life, strategic coping with stress, academic procrastination, and academic burnout. We hypothesized that having meaning in life would lead to less academic procrastination due to more frequent use of strategic coping, and less academic procrastination will in turn lead to less academic burnout. 233 students of Croatian universities (age M = 22 years), served as participants of the study. Several instruments were used: The Meaning in Life Questionnaire, Strategic Coping Scale, Academic Procrastination Scale, and modified School Burnout Inventory. The results were in line with the hypothesis showing that lack of meaning in life leads to academic burnout, mediated by lower use of strategic coping and increasing academic procrastination. The results implicate that students with lower meaning in their lives are at risk for higher academic procrastination and burnout, thus suggesting the need for supporting students to find their life meaning.
keywords: coping; higher education; meaning of life; students; well-being