Behavioral Counseling with Self-Management Techniques to Minimize Academic Procrastination Behavior in Junior High School Students

Academic procrastination is one of the common problems experienced by adolescents, which negatively impacts both academic achievement and mental health. Limited self-regulation ability is a dominant factor that causes students to delay completing tasks. This study aims to examine the effectiveness of self-management techniques in reducing academic procrastination among students. The research employed a quasi-experimental design with a quantitative approach, specifically a non-equivalent control group design. The research subjects consisted of 16 students selected through purposive sampling based on high levels of academic procrastination, and they were divided into an experimental group and a control group, each comprising 8 students. The instruments used in this study included observation, interviews, and an academic procrastination questionnaire based on a Likert scale. Data were analyzed using the Shapiro Wilk normality test, Levene’s test for homogeneity, and an independent sample t-test with the assistance of SPSS 22 software. The results indicated a significant difference between the experimental and control groups, with a significance value of 0.000 (p < 0.05). These findings demonstrate that group counseling services using self-management techniques are effective in reducing students’ academic procrastination. The implications of this study suggest that self-management techniques can be integrated into guidance and counseling practices as both preventive and curative strategies to address academic procrastination.