Soft-Skills Mediation Between Procrastination And Academic Performance For Medical Students
Alfaisal University, Saudi Arabia
ABSTRACT
Procrastination is known to be a predominant player in managing academic performance and thus gained considerable interest by educators. This study aims to analyze and link procrastination to students’ motivational abilities to learn, university social interaction, and the adoption of soft skills for conflict management. Data was collected from 217 medical students at different years through a self-administrative survey from both male and female medical students. The students’ responses to the selected constructs were measured using point-scales through a self-administered survey. The descriptive statistics of the gathered data was performed using SPSS statistical package while the corresponding structural equation modelling was completed using Smart PLS. Additional analysis were conducted to assess the integrity and validity of the selected model. Within the selected constructs of this study, the results showed that students’ motivation seems to explain over 95% of variance in the underpinning causes for procrastination within the context of the selected constructs for this study. The social context, soft skills in conflict management, and the support of the teaching environment seems to play minor roles on impacting the procrastination effect. These observations are analyzed in terms of the academic performance. Furthermore, the gender and year impact on this finding were evaluated using variance analysis through one-way and two-way ANOVA. The finding in terms of the learning motivation are aligned with the literature, however the mediation effect of the soft skills, social engagement, and university learning support seems to play very little effect on the observed procrastination level. This findings will help the university management to develop more tailored approaches to tackle the root causes of academic procrastination which in terns may impact the targeted academic performance.
KEYWORDS
Learning Motivation, Procrastination, Academic Performance, Soft skills, Social Interaction