Academic procrastination in focus: Understanding the roles of academic self-efficacy and academic buoyancy among English-majors

Despite knowing the importance of timely academic engagement, many students continue to delay their academic responsibilities, raising questions about the psychological factors that influence academic procrastination. Thus, this study focuses on academic procrastination and explores how academic self-efficacy and academic buoyancy may contribute to its mitigation, with a specific focus on the potentially mediating role of academic buoyancy on the relationship between academic self-efficacy and academic procrastination. The study involved 170 undergraduate students majoring in English at a state university in Türkiye. Quantitative in nature, this study utilized structural equation modelling technique to investigate the interplay among academic self-efficacy, academic buoyancy and academic procrastination. The correlational analyses found statistically significant relationships among all variables, viz. positive correlation between academic self-efficacy and academic buoyancy, and negative correlation between academic procrastination and academic self-efficacy / academic buoyancy. The SEM analyses also indicated that academic self-efficacy had a significant total effect on academic procrastination, but its direct effect became insignificant when academic buoyancy was included in the model. Additionally, academic buoyancy did not significantly predict academic procrastination and failed to mediate the relationship between academic self-efficacy and academic procrastination. This study highlights the importance of consistent and sustained study among university students, and opens new avenues for underlying psychological mechanisms to gain greater insight into academic procrastination.