The relationship between cognitive flexibility and academic procrastination among university students

This study examined the relationship between university students' cognitive flexibility levels and academic procrastination levels. A total of 542 undergraduate students completed the scales found in Google Forms, and when the responses were examined, 8 students did not respond to the scales and reported that they did not accept the study, so they were not included in the study. A total of 534 students participated in the study. Participants were aged between 17 and 45, with 374 female and 160 male students. After obtaining voluntary participation consent, a demographic information form, the Cognitive Flexibility Inventory, and the Tucman Academic Procrastination Scale were administered. Pearson correlation was applied to test the relationship between numerical variables. Spearman correlation coefficient was calculated to test the relationship between numerical variables in data with normal distribution. Gender and age variables were not included in the regression model because there was no relationship between them. No statistically significant difference was found between the scale scores and demographic variables according to gender in the Tuckman Academic Procrastination Scale, Cognitive Flexibility Scale, and Alternatives subscale scores (p>0.05). There was a statistically significant difference in the Control subscale scores between participants' genders (p<0.05). Female participants had higher Control subscale scores than male participants. No statistically significant relationship was found between participants' ages and the Tuckman Academic Procrastination Scale, Cognitive Flexibility Scale, Alternatives subscale, and Control subscale (p>0.05). In analyses conducted according to cognitive flexibility subdimensions, a statistically significant negative relationship was found between Tuckman Academic Procrastination Scale scores and Alternative subdimension scores and Control subdimension scores.