The relationship between fear of failure and academic procrastination in adolescents: The mediating role of emotion regulation difficulty, anxiety sensitivity and problematic internet use

This study aimed to examine the role of anxiety sensitivity, difficulty in emotion regulation and problematic internet use in the relationship between fear of failure and academic procrastination. The study group consisted of 508 high school students, 341 females and 167 males, studying in different provinces of Turkey in the 2020-2021 academic year. Fear of Failure Scale, Aitken Procrastination Tendency Scale, Chen Internet Addiction Scale, Anxiety Sensitivity Scale for Children, Difficulty in Emotion Regulation Scale and Personal Information Form were used to collect the data. Using the relational model, Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Analysis was used to determine the relationships between the variables in the study. The relationships between fear of failure, anxiety sensitivity, difficulty in emotion regulation, problematic internet use and academic procrastination were analyzed with the Structural Equation Modeling. The significance of the indirect relationships between the variables was tested with 2000 bootstrapp samples. According to the results, fear of failure had an indirect relationship with academic procrastination through anxiety sensitivity, difficulty in emotion regulation and problematic internet use. In addition, fear of failure predicted academic procrastination significantly through emotion regulation difficulties. According to the findings, preventive, protective and supportive intervention methods to be developed regarding fear of failure, academic procrastination and all other variables will contribute to the literature in order for adolescents to develop a healthy identity. Keywords: Fear of Failure, Academic Procrastination, Difficulty in Emotion Regulation, Anxiety Sensitivity, Problematic Internet Use.