Solomon & Rothblum (1984): Frequency and Reasons
Solomon and Rothblum's 1984 study in the Journal of Counseling Psychology measured how often students procrastinate across academic tasks and factor-analysed their stated reasons. Around 46% reported nearly always or always procrastinating on writing term papers, with revision and weekly reading close behind, and most wanted to reduce it. The reasons clustered into two factors: fear of failure (anxiety, perfectionistic concerns, low confidence) and aversiveness of the task (it is unpleasant and effortful). The study also introduced the widely used Procrastination Assessment Scale for Students.
| Citation | Solomon, L. J., & Rothblum, E. D. (1984). Academic procrastination: Frequency and cognitive-behavioral correlates. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 31(4), 503–509. |
|---|---|
| Study type | Cross-sectional survey with factor analysis; introduced the PASS questionnaire |
| Sample | 342 university students |
| Key finding | 46% nearly always procrastinated on term papers, 27.6% on studying for exams, 30.1% on weekly reading; reasons formed two factors, fear of failure and task aversiveness |
What the study found
Students rated how much they procrastinated on six academic tasks and how much of a problem it was, then rated 26 possible reasons for a recent delay. Procrastination was most common on writing papers and least common on administrative tasks. When the 26 reasons were factor-analysed, a fear of failure cluster explained the most variance but applied strongly to a minority of students, while a task aversiveness cluster (the work is unpleasant, boring, effortful) applied more moderately to many more students. Self-reported procrastination correlated with depression, irrational beliefs and low self-esteem, and modestly with delayed quiz-taking behaviour.
Why it matters
This paper put numbers on something everyone suspected and split procrastinators into two broad stories that still organise the field: some people delay because the task threatens them, others simply because it is unpleasant. The distinction matters for fixing it, anxiety-driven delay responds to lowering the stakes and self-compassion, aversiveness-driven delay responds to making the task smaller and the start easier. The PASS questionnaire it introduced is still used in research today.
Caveats
One student sample from one American university, recruited partly through a counselling context, so the prevalence figures should not be quoted as universal facts. Everything is self-report, and the reasons students give for delay are post-hoc explanations that may not match the real-time causes later experience-sampling work has captured. The two-factor solution is also a simplification: fear of failure and aversiveness often travel together in the same person and the same task.
Peer-reviewed study in the Journal of Counseling Psychology (APA), one of the most cited papers in academic procrastination research. Verified via Crossref.
Related
Procrastinating on studyingPychyl et al. on what delay feels like in the moment
Frequently asked questions
What percentage of students procrastinate?
In this study, 46% said they nearly always or always procrastinate on writing term papers, and most students reported procrastinating to some degree on at least one academic task. Later reviews put general student procrastination at 80–95% occasionally, with around half calling it a consistent problem.
Why do students procrastinate according to research?
This study found two main clusters of reasons: fear of failure, which was intense for a smaller group, and task aversiveness, the work being boring or unpleasant, which affected far more students at a moderate level. Later research added impulsiveness and distant deadlines as key ingredients.