The Impact of Hope, Procrastination, and Social Activity on Academic Performance of MidWestern Collage Students

Introduction Tests of academic ability such as the American College Test (ACT) and Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) have been found to be useful predictors of academic performance in college (e.g., Donlin, 1984; Halpin, Halpin, & Schaer, 1981; Mouw & Khanna, 1993; Sibert & Ayers, 1989). However, such tests do not account fully for college students' overall effectiveness in academic pursuits. Consequently, there has been considerable research focused on identifying additional variables that contribute to individual differences in academic performance (e.g., Britton & Tessor, 1991; Holland & Astin, 1962; Ting & Robinson, 1998). Two motivational factors that have received recent attention as potential predictors of academic performance are hope and procrastination. As conceptualized by Snyder and colleagues (1991, 1999), hope is a cognitive-motivational construct reflecting the interaction of 1) successful agency (goal directed determination) and 2) pathways (planning of ways to meet goals). Hope is associated with measures of adaptive functioning such as psychological adjustment, physical well being, and problem-focused coping (Snyder, Cheavens, & Michael, 1999). There is also recent evidence that hope is positively correlated with academic performance and related measures (e.g., Chang, 1998; Snyder et al, 1997). For example, Snyder et al (1997) found that the Children's Hope Scale was associated with the Iowa Basic Test of Skill, a commonly used measure of academic achievement for children and adolescents, even after statistically controlling for variance in self worth. In research with college athletes, hope was positively correlated with semester grade point average, after controlling for cumulative grade point average (Curry, Snyder, Cook, Ruby, & Rehm, 1997). Snyder, Wiklund, & Cheavens (cited in Snyder et al, 1999) gave 200 college freshmen the dispositional Hope Scale and monitored academic progress over the next six years. High levels of hope were associated with both grade point average and graduation status, even after statistically controlling for variance in ACT scores. High hope students had a significantly higher mean grade point average and were more likely to have graduated than low hope students. Chang (1998) found that compared to students scoring high in hope, those low in hope employed more disengagement strategies (problem avoidance, social withdrawal, self-criticism) in coping with a specific stressful academic situation. Hope also contributed to academic life satisfaction independent of the impact of age, gender, and domain specific coping strategies. Although Chang's study did not assess academic achievement per se, it suggests that reduced hope is associated with less adaptive strategies in coping with academic stressors. Evidence that hope has positive associations with active coping (e.g., Snyder et al, 1999) and negative relations with avoidance and disengagement (Chang, 1998) raises the possibility that degree of active engagement rather than hope per se has greater predictive power in relation to academic achievement. Procrastination, a construct with direct relevance to degree of active engagement in tasks, has also been identified as a potentially important predictor of academic achievement. Procrastination refers to the irrational tendency to delay tasks that should be completed (Lay, 1986). About 20-30% of college students and the general population consider procrastination to be a significant problem related to impairments in personal, occupational, and financial well-being (e.g., Ferrari, Johnson, & McCown, 1995). Procrastination may impede academic performance in several ways. First, some procrastinators cope with the anxiety and threat of initiating tasks by actively avoiding them until there is insufficient time to perform optimally (Schouwenburg, 1995). Second, procrastinators might underestimate the amount of time required for specific tasks; consequently they may not invest the time and effort necessary for performing well (McCown, 1986). …