The Relationship between the Rate of the Use of Computer Games and Academic Procrastination: The Mediatory Role of Goal Orientation in Elementary School Students

This study intended to investigate the relationship between the rate of the use of computer games and elementary school students’ academic procrastination considering the mediatory role of goal orientation. To this end, using a multi-stage cluster sampling procedure, 213 male and female elementary school students (112 female and 101 male students) were selected from the two educational districts of Shiraz. The instruments used in the study included a questionnaire on Academic Procrastination (Savari, 2011), one on Goal Orientation (Elliott, 1999 and McGregor, 2001) and a researcher-made questionnaire on the time spent using computer games daily. Regarding the first two questionnaires, Cronbach's alpha method was used to estimate the reliability and validity of the correlations of the items with the dimensions and the correlation of the dimensions with the total score was also used. The obtained results confirmed the acceptable validity and reliability of the questionnaires. To evaluate the model, path analysis was utilized using SPSS 21 software. Results indicated that there was a negative and significant relationship between academic procrastination, mastery-oriented goal orientation and the rate of the use of computer games. Furthermore, the mastery-avoidance goal orientation was a positive and significant predictor of academic procrastination. However, there was not any statistically significant difference between male and female students in terms of the relationship between goal orientation (performance-oriented, performance-avoidance, mastery-oriented, and mastery-avoidance) and the rate of the use of computer games. Findings of the research indicated that there was a negative and significant relationship between academic proclivity and goal orientation-dominant and tenderness-performance. Also, the use of computer games predicted a positive and significant predictive of academic achievement and predicted a negative and significant predictive the mastery-avoidance goal orientation. Also, there was no significant difference between male and female students in terms of academic procrastination and goal orientation.