Scholarly Commons

The Effects of Birth Order, Personality, and Parenting Styles on Procrastination in College Students

Procrastination is an individual’s tendency to delay difficult or unwanted tasks, which ultimately disrupts their goals and performance. Procrastinators tend to experience decreased anxiety when tasks are neglected and increased anxiety once tasks are finally started. In the current study, we examine the influence of birth order, personality, and parenting styles on procrastination in college students. Since authoritative parents balance both involvement and support while authoritarian and permissive parents do not, we expect participants with authoritative parents to have low levels of procrastination. Since those with high conscientiousness demonstrate good self-discipline, those with high neuroticism get overwhelmed when facing obligations, and those with low impulse control struggle to complete tasks on time, we expect participants with low conscientiousness, high neuroticism, and low impulse control to have higher levels of procrastination. Lastly, since personality traits differ among first-borns and later-borns, we expect to find links between birth order, personality, and procrastination.