The Effect of Parental Academic Achievement Pressure perceived by Middle School Students on Academic Procrastination: The Mediating Role of Evaluative Concerns Perfectionism

Objectives: This study aimed to examine the mediating effect of evaluative concerns perfectionism on the relationship between parental academic achievement pressure perceived by middle school students and their academic procrastination.Methods: The study participants were 522 middle school students from first to third grade from three middle schools located in Gunsan, Iksan, and Jeonju. All data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Pearson’s correlation coefficients. Structural equation modeling was also used to investigate the mediating model.Results: The result of this study showed that the level of parental academic achievement pressure perceived by middle school students increased their level of academic procrastination. In addition, the level of students’ evaluative concerns perfectionism increased the level of their academic procrastination. Second, middle school students’ evaluative concerns perfectionism partially mediated the relationship between parental academic achievement pressure perceived by them and their academic procrastination. That is, the higher the level of parental academic achievement pressure, the higher the level of evaluative concerns perfectionism, and consequently, the higher the middle school students’ academic procrastination.Conclusion: The outcomes suggest that it is important for parents to set proper expectations for their children and provide them with sufficient support, such as respecting their autonomy in academic decision-making to prevent students’ academic procrastination. In addition, interventions to change maladaptive cognitive beliefs including evaluation concerns perfectionism would help students reduce their academic procrastination. In conclusion, these findings suggest several ways to prevent and decrease middle school students’ academic procrastination by empirically verifying predictors on academic procrastination.