Abstract:

The study aim was to determine the level of procrastination and its interrelations with personality traits, cognitive and proactive coping strategies and the indicators of success for students studying in the “law enforcement” specialty. The used empirical methods were: General Procrastination Scale (C. Lay, 1984, adapted by Windecker, Ostanina, 2014); Procrastination Assessment Scale-Student (Solomon, Rothblum, 1986, adapted by Zvereva, 2015); Melbourne Decision Making Questionnaire (adapted by Kornilova, 2013); the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (adapted by Lubovsky, 2006); Big-Five Taxonomic Inventory (Goldberg, adapted by Burlachuk, Korolev); Proactive Coping Inventory (Greenglass, Schwarzer, & Taubert, 1999, adaptated by Starchenkov, 2007); Rotter’s Internal-External Locus of Control Scale (adapted by Bazhin, Golynkina, Etkind, 1989); the General Self-Efficacy Scale (R. Schwarzer & M. Jerusalem, modified by Romek, 1996); the method researching self-attitude (Panteleev, Stolin, 1993); the questionnaire of personality maturity (O.S. Shtepa, 2008). In addition, external indicators of success (the average assessment of academic achievements) were taken into account. By clustering the obtained data, three clusters were revelled corresponding to the respondents with low, medium, and high general and academic procrastination, the average academic achievements in these clusters were in the inverse order. Active and impulsive procrastinators, however, had above-average academic achievements. Correlation analysis revealed variables that stimulate students’ academic procrastination in different ways: the cluster with low procrastination was characterized by the correlation between procrastination and conscientiousness, the respondents from the high procrastination cluster were characterized by neuroticism, extraversion, and the tendency to externalize reasons for failures. The representatives of the low-procrastination cluster showed higher self-esteem. The behavioural component of procrastination correlated with productive coping strategies in the low-procrastination cluster and unproductive ones in the high-procrastination cluster. Moreover, there were no direct correlations with productive cognitive coping strategies in both clusters. As the result of factor analysis, a three-factor personality structure for a procrastinator-future police officer was identified: 1) an individual’s feeling their inability to cope with educational or professional challenges (the indicators of an individual depending on their impulses); 2) an individual solving actively the educational or professional problems (who takes responsibility for solving academic and official tasks, copies with procrastination); 3) avoidance by an individual of responsibility over threats in stressful events and situations of failure (the indicators of the behavioural and social levels). For the total sample, its average level of procrastination was relatively high. Also, the data allowed us to assert that positive Self could be a predictor for successful job growth of a weakly procrastinating professional; cognitive styles, as difficult to form qualities, required supporting development regardless of a procrastination level. The factor structures of the high and low procrastination clusters did not have significant differences in terms of temporal characteristics, although significant differences were revealed in terms of personal and behavioural properties.

Keywords:

General and academic procrastination, educational activities, coping strategies, self-esteem, factor structure, students.