Bidirectional relationships between self‐control and academic procrastination: A longitudinal study from middle childhood to early adolescence

Despite theoretical work suggesting a close link between self‐control and academic procrastination, the bidirectional relationship between them remains unclear. The present study used a large sample of Chinese children ( N = 6590; 50.9% boys; M age = 9.48 ± 0.99 years at Time 0), assessed over three six‐month waves from third to sixth grade. A random‐intercept cross‐lagged panel model indicated that self‐control was significantly associated with academic procrastination at the between‐person level. At the within‐person level, decreases in self‐control predicted later increases in academic procrastination, while increases in academic procrastination predicted later decreases in self‐control. These findings support a bidirectional relationship and suggest that understanding the interaction between self‐control and academic procrastination may inform prevention and intervention strategies.