Prevalence of Procrastination among Samples of Adults

Abstract

At four public meetings, 122 women and 89 men ( M age = 47.6 yr.) completed measures of Decisional, Avoidant, and Arousal Procrastination. About 20% of respondents (42 adults) claimed to be chronic procrastinators, with highest rates of all three procrastination types reported by members of the community (public) groups ( n = 64) compared to professional ( n = 54), business ( n = 59), and educational ( n = 34) employees. Respondents who had been married, i.e., separated, divorced, widowed, reported higher rates of procrastination (independent of number of children) than adults who were currently married or never married. Respondents with high-school education or less reported higher rates of decisional procrastination than individuals with college or postcollege educations.