Parental and teacher autonomy support, self-efficacy, perceived homework value, and homework procrastination: A social cognitive theory perspective

Homework is an extension of students’ classroom learning and an important form of independent learning activity. Because homework procrastination negatively affects students’ academic achievement, it is important to clarify the factors associated with this behavior. Drawing on social cognitive theory and self-regulated learning, this study examined how external contextual factors and individual motivational factors relate to students’ homework procrastination. A total of 609 students from six schools in Heping District, Jinnan District, and Jizhou District of Tianjin participated in the study. Specifically, the study investigated whether parental autonomy support and teacher autonomy support were associated with students’ self-efficacy, whether self-efficacy and perceived homework value were associated with homework procrastination, and whether self-efficacy played a mediating role in the relationships between parental and teacher autonomy support and homework procrastination. The results showed that both parental autonomy support and teacher autonomy support were positively associated with students’ self-efficacy. In addition, both self-efficacy and perceived homework value were negatively associated with homework procrastination. Further analyses indicated that the results were consistent with an indirect-pathway model in which parental and teacher autonomy support were linked to homework procrastination through students’ self-efficacy. These findings suggest that autonomy-supportive contexts may be associated with lower homework procrastination partly through students’ self-efficacy, while perceived homework value is directly associated with homework procrastination.