Investigating the Mediating Role of Procrastination in the Relationship between Positive and Negative Perfectionism and Mobile Phone Addiction in Gifted Students

Adolescence is a critical period in terms of development and education, in which there are numbers of high-risk behaviors that can negative effects on personal and educational life. One of these high-risk behaviors is mobile phone addiction that is a sociopsychological phenomenon, and the lack of control in the use of this technology by students can cause damage to various aspects of their personal and educational lives. The aim of the present study was to investigate the mediating role of procrastination in the relationship between positive and negative perfectionism and addiction to mobile phone in gifted students.

This was a descriptive and correlational study in which 200 gifted students from gifted students’ high school of Meshghinshahr were selected using cluster sampling in 2020. Tri-Shot Perfectionism questionnaires, Tuckman Procrastination Scale, and Savari Mobile Phone Addiction questionnaire were applied to collect data. Descriptive statistics, correlation matrix, and path analysis (Structural Model) were used to analyze data.

The findings revealed positive and negative perfectionism was not directly related to cell phone addiction. However, positive perfectionism through procrastination meditation had a negative and indirect relationship with mobile phone addiction (β = -0.18), and negative perfectionism through procrastination meditation had a positive and indirect relationship with mobile phone addiction (β = 0.17). In other words, procrastination is a complete mediation in the relationship between negative and positive perfectionism and cell phone addiction in students (β = 0.29).

The results emphasized the effect of procrastination on the relationship between positive and negative perfectionism and mobile phone addiction in gifted students. Therefore, these findings can help school and rehabilitation counselors to prepare programs for reducing students' addictive and avoidant behaviors.