The Relationship between Student-life Stressors and Procrastination in Students Living in Dormitories

Learning is an experience that causes stress in learners and on the other hand, procrastination in the educational situation is a very common phenomenon. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between student-life stressors and procrastination in students living in dormitories of Tehran University of Medical Sciences in 2016. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 267 students living in dormitories of Tehran University of Medical Sciences who were selected by stratified sampling. Data were collected through Gadzella’s 51-item student-life stress inventory and Schwarzer and Diehl’s 10-item procrastination scale. Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation coefficient were used to analyze the data at a 0.05 significance level. The mean age of the participants was 23.39±3.56. As to gender, 39.7 percent of students were male and the rest were female. According to the correlation coefficient test, there was a positive and weak correlation between student-life stressors and procrastination (p<0.001, r=0.30). There was also a negative and very weak correlation between GPA and procrastination (p=0.028, r=-0.13). Students who are exposed to a great number of stressors tend to procrastinate more. It is therefore possible to reduce procrastination by identifying and controlling student-life stressors.