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Prevalence of Procrastination in the
United States, United Kingdom, and Australia:
Arousal and Avoidance Delays among Adults
Joseph R. Ferrari
DePaul University
Jean O'Callaghan & Ian Newbegin
Roehampton University Royal Melbourne Institute
of Technology
No systematic study has examined the global prevalence of chronic
procrastination - the purposive delay in starting or completing tasks. In
the present study, adult samples from the United States (122 women, 85
men),
United Kingdom (143 women, 96 men), and Australia (124
women, 90 men) completed reliable and valid self-report measures of
arousal procrastination (delays motivated by a "last-minute" thrill
experience) and avoidant procrastination (delays related to fears of
failure or success). Both men and women from the United Kingdom
reported higher rates of arousal and avoidance procrastination compared
to adults from the United States and Australia. However, when both
procrastination types were separated statistically into "pure types" there
were no significant differences across countries: 11.5% of adults
self-
identified as arousal procrastinators, and 9.9% of adults as avoidant
procrastinators. Results indicated that chronic procrastination prevalence
is common among westernized, individualistic, English-speaking
countries; further epidemiological cross-cultural studies are needed.
It has been estimated that procrastination (i.e., frequent delays in
starting and/or completing tasks to deadline: Ferrari, Johnson, &
McCown, 1995) is common by around 70% of college students for
academic-specific tasks (Ellis & Knaus, 1977), yet as high as 20%
among normal adult men and women for everyday, daily life events such
as paying bills and planning for personal health issues (Harriott &
Ferrari, 1996). While it seems that procrastination rates decrease with
age,
Ferrari et al. (1995) proposed that these rates reflect different forms
of procrastination, with the former an exanqjle of situational-specific task
delays and the latter indicative of chronic, dispositional delay behavior
patterns. That is, college students may engage in delay of studying but
Author info: Correspondence should be sent to: the first author at the Department
of Psychology, DePaul University, 2219 North Kenmore Avenue, Chicago, IL,
60614;
j ferrari@depaul.edu
North American Journal of Psychology, 2005, Vol. 7, No. 1,
1
-6.
© NAJP
NORTH AMERICAN JOURNAL
OF
PSYCHOLOGY
not in other aspects of their life (e.g., at part-time jobs or engaging in
social events). In contrast, there are persons who frequently, almost
chronically engage in task delays as a maladaptive lifestyle (Ferrari et al.
1995;
Ferrari & Pychyl, 2000). It is the chronic, frequent delays that are
the interest of
the
present exploratory study.
Two types of chronic procrastination with adverse social
implications have been found equally common among U.S. men and
women (Ferrari & Pychyl, 2000: Schowuenburg, Lay, Pychyl, & Ferrari,
2004),
and more likely reported by "white collar" as compared to "blue
collar" workers (Hammer & Ferrari, 2002). One form of chronic delays is
arousal procrastination, delays that make a person experience a "high"
when rushing to corrplete tasks. Individuals with this tendency indicate
they purposively wait until the last minute in order to engage in hyper-
activity as the deadline to the task approaches. Another form of chronic
delays is avoidant procrastination, the delay of tasks such that
completion would reflect one's abilities. By not completing a task by a
specific deadline, the person may claim that poor performance was
influenced by lack of effort or greater rates of time pressure instead of
lack of personal ability (Ferrari et al., 1995).
People who claim chronic procrastination tendencies are more likely
to engage in self-handicapping behaviors (Ferrari, 1991b; Ferrari & Tice,
2000),
positive impression management, and avoidance of self-relevant
evaluations (Ferrari, 199Id). Empirical studies also report that chronic
procrastination is related to a host of other traits, including low states of
self-confidence and self-esteem and high states of depression, neurosis,
public self-consciousness, social anxiety, forgetfulness, disorganization,
non-competitiveness, dysfunctional impulsiveness, behavioral rigidity,
and lack of energy (Beswick, Rothblum, & Mann, 1988; Ferrari 1991a, b,
1992,
1993, 1994; Lay, 1986). In short, chronic procrastination is a
complex phenomenon involving more than time management difficulty.
Ferrari (1992, 1993) reported that scores on the General
Procrastination (GP) scale developed by Lay (1986: items foimd in
Ferrari et al., 1995) loaded positively with arousal tendencies such as
sensation seeking and boredom-proneness. Persons scoring high on the
GP scale generate excuses for their delays that reflected external causes
that could not be easily verified by others (Ferrari, 1993). Alternatively,
Ferrari found that scores on the Adult Inventory of Procrastination (AIP)
created by McCown and Johnson (1989: also available in Ferrari et al.,
1995) reflected avoidant procrastination. Persons who score high on this
measure utilize self-deprecation factors for their tendencies for delays
(e.g., perceiving a lack of skills needed to perform a task, and fears of
failure: Ferrari, 1993).
Ferrari, O'Callaghan
&
Newbegin PROCRASTINATION 3
Unfortunately, previous investigations with adult samples only from
the United States and/or Canada report that GP and AIP scores as highly
inter-correlated (0.40 to 0.70: Ferrari et al., 1995). No published study
reported cross-cultural prevalence rates of arousal and avoidant
procrastination separately among adults from other westernized, English-
speaking countries. Understanding the global rates of chronic
procrastination may facilitate an understanding about whether people
across cultures frequently delay tasks and whether those delays may be
described from demographic profiles.
In the present study, adult samples completed both .GP and Aip.
measures of procrastination. We then statistically separated rates of
arousal and avoidant procrastination to examine "pure procrastination"
types.
Because this study was exploratory, without any previous research
literature investigating prevalence rates across nationalities, we did not
form any specific hypotheses on cultural rate differences among adult
samples. We did expect, however, that the rates of adult chronic
procrastination would be approximately 20% among the U.S. sarrqjle,
consistent with several other reported prevalence studies examining
arousal and avoidant procrastination (e.g., Ferrari, 1991a; Hammer &
Ferrari, 2002; Harriott & Fenrari, 1996). We also expected there would be
no significant sex differences in procrastination rates across countries,
given previous studies with U.S. and Canadian adult samples (see Ferrari
& Pychyl, 2000, for examples).
METHOD
Participants
All participants were convenient samples from three English-
speaking countries: United States (n = 207; 122 women, 85 men). United
Kingdom (n = 239; 143 women, 96 men), and Australia (n = 214; 124
women, 90 men). The mean age across these adult samples was 40.7
years old {SD = 12.35). Most participants reported they were married
(80%) with about 2 children (M number of children = 1.88, SD = 0.34).
Participants also reported they were employed at their present position,
on average, 2 to 3 years (M = 2.66 years, SD = 0.88). All participants
volunteered to participate in this study (compliance rate > 90%) and none
had previously participated in another procrastination or research study.
Procedure and Psychometric Scales
Participants were adults recruited by the three authors from their
respective countries during a two-month period. Public meetings, general
fiyers, and gatherings of adults living in urban areas were used to solicit
participants. Announcements asked men and women within the age range
of 35 to 45 years old to complete a short set of measures on their
NORTH AMERICAN JOURNAL
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PSYCHOLOGY
tendency toward task delays, to be followed by a brief presentation on
procrastination. In each case, one of the authors asked participants after
signing and returning a consent form to complete a brief demographic
sheet requesting their age, sex, marital status, number of children, and
number of years of current employment, and then both procrastination
inventories, in counter-balanced order.
All participants conpleted Lay's (1986) 20-item, 5-point (1 = not
true of me; 5 = very true of me) General Procrastination Scale (GP) that
examined behavioral tendencies to delays in the start of completion of
everyday tasks for thrill-seeking experiences. Sample items include "I
often find myself performing tasks that I had intended to do days before,"
and "I generally return phone calls promptly (reverse-coded)," (present
sample alpha = 0.89). This scale has acceptable temporal stability (retest
r S .60) and construct and predictive validities as a research inventory.
Also,
participants completed the 15-item, self-report Adult Inventory
of Procrastination (AIP), developed by McCown and Johnson (1989; see
Ferrari et al, 1995, for details), to examine chronic task delays across a
variety of situations motivated by avoidance of task unpleasantness and
personal performance anxieties. Respondents rate items along a 5-point
Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree; 5 = strongly agree), and seven items
are reverse scored; high scores reflect a tendency to procrastinate.
Sample items include "I often find myself running out of time" and "I
don't get things done on time." Retest reliability at one month is 0.71
(McCown & Johnson, 1989) and the internal consistency of the measure
has been > 0.80. With the present sample, coefficient alpha was 0.86.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Initially, preliminary chi-square and one-way ANOVAs indicated no
significant differences across countries on any of the demographic items.
These results indicate that the accidental samples included in this study
were similar or matched in profiles on the specific demographic items
included in this study. Next, a 2 (gender) by 3 (countries) MANOVA was
performed on the GP and AIP mean scores. As expected, there was no
significant sex main or interaction effects on either procrastination
measure. These results support previous studies indicating that rates of
chronic procrastination are similar among men and women (see Ferrari et
al.,
1995). Apparently, chronic procrastination tendencies may be found
among adult men and women in various westernized, Anglo countries.
Furthennore, there was a significant main effect for countries on
both procrastination measures, multivariate F
(8,
1136)= 12.67,;? < .001,
Wilkes Lambda = .843. Subsequent univariate analyses indicated a
significant difference among nationalities on scores for the GP scale, F
(2,
655) = 20.56, p < .001. For arousal procrastination tendencies adults
Ferrari, O'Callaghan
&
Newbegin PROCRASTINATION 5
from the United Kingdom claimed significantly higher prevalence rates
(M = 52.47, SD = 10.01) than adults from the United States (M =
48.01,
SD = 9.91), which was higher than adults from Australia (Af = 42.72, SD
= 8.76). TTiere also was a significant nationality effect on scores on the
AIP scale. For avoidant procrastination tendencies adults from the United
Kingdom again reported significantly higher prevalence rates (M =
40.91,
SD = 5.51) than adults from either the United States (M = 35.67,
SD = 4.43) or Australia (Af = 33.97, SD = 5.33). Together, these results
suggest that men and women from England report higher rates of arousal
and avoidant procrastination than U.S. citizens or Australian, yet
Australians claim they are least likely to engage in either form of chronic
procrastination.
However, GP and AIP scores were significantly correlated within
each country (overall r = 0.679, p < .001), suggesting that these chronic
behavior patterns were not mutually exclusive. Consequently, pure
procrastination types were calculated to permit separate assessments of
prevalence rates across countries. Pure arousal procrastination was
obtained by co-varying AIP scores and pure avoidant procrastination vice
versa; residual scores were entered into the analyses.
Subsequent one-way ANOVAs across the three countries separately
for both "pure" types of procrastination indicated no significant
difference across the three English-speaking nations. Across all three
countries, 11.5% of the adult samples self-identified themselves as
chronic arousal procrastinators. A different 9.9% of the adult sample
labeled themselves as chronic avoidant procrastinators. These rates
replicate the 20% United States prevalence rates for chronic
procrastination when both types were not separated into pure types (e.g..
Hammer & Ferrari, 2002; Harriott & Fenari, 1996).
It seems both types of chronic procrastination are prevalent among a
significant number of English speaking adults from three westernized
Anglo nations. While it appeared that procrastination prevalence might
be higher among the Enghsh than U.S. or Australians, examining the
rates for separate forms of chronic delays suggests the rates are similar
across nations. These results indicate that globally there exist two related
but separate forms of chronic procrastination: arousal and avoidance.
Researchers must remember to use the appropriate inventory for the
particular form of procrastination they which to assess.
Because this exploratory study included accidental samples, fiiture
studies need to include larger numbers of participants ckawn from
random samples from each of these three countries to increase greater
generalizations beyond the san^les reported here. Future studies should
include epidemiological research with different socio-economic groups,
living in different metropolitan settings, and across different sub-cultures
NORTH AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY
within each country. Nevertheless, we believe these results demonstrate
that chronic procrastination in fact is a common occurrence among adults
living in westernized, individualistic, Enghsh-speaking countries.
REFERENCES
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student procrastination. Australian Psychologist, 23, 207-217.
Ellis,
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Note: The authors thank the men and women who volunteered for the data
collection process at the varied public meetings and gatherings.
