Exploring the Effectiveness of CBT and Mindfulness on Academic

Procrastination

Nuo Liang

Lewis College of Science and Letters, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago,60616, U.S.A.

Keywords: CBT, Mindfulness, Procrastination.

Abstract: Procrastination is one of the most discussed behavior patterns nowadays. It can significantly reduce one’s life

quality through decreased self-confidence and increased negative habits including heavy drinking, insomnia

etc. According to research, procrastinating is very common among students when dealing with their academic

tasks, and it can cause them moderate-to-high level problems when procrastination behaviors accrued.

Although some strategies are commonly suggested for students to improve their procrastination behavior, the

effectiveness of certain specific intervention for academic procrastination behavior was not analyzed enough.

So, the purpose of this article is to analyze and discuss the effectiveness of specific interventions including

cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and mindfulness on academic procrastination among students through

reviewing existing empirical studies. Five articles were discussed, and the reviewed studies showed that both

CBT and mindfulness are effective on improving academic procrastination behavior. Group CBT was found

to be more effective compared to ICBT. The results could help create possible future interventions to improve

academic procrastination or procrastination related behaviour.

1 INTRODUCTION

A lot of people have experienced this situation, the

deadline of a task is getting closer and closer, the

anxiety and stress level is getting higher and higher.

However, instead of taking reasonable actions such as

finishing the task as soon as possible, escaping

behavior seems unstoppable. This typical behavior

that a lot of people have experienced is defined as

procrastination. For students who tries to accomplish

their academic goals, procrastination behavior is one

of the biggest problems in their way. A study found

that academic procrastination was closely related to

lower academic success rate and was related to

academic failure. Additionally, the study found that

procrastination is correlated with impulsivity and

perfectionism (Alaya et al., 2021).

CBT was developed from cognitive therapy (CT).

CT believes that distorted cognitive pattern is the

cause of mental distress and behavior issues, by

identifying and modifying the cognitive pattern could

improve the issue (Beck, 1979). While CBT

combines cognitive principles with behavioral

techniques. This makes CBT a good choice in

improving procrastination. For example, CBT could

help reconstruct perfectionist individual’s cognitive

believes to set reasonable goals instead of high

standards to avoid procrastination behavior caused by

fear of failure. While mindfulness is a practice of

being at the present without any judgement. This

intervention is a great choice for improving

procrastination because it helps create this muscle

memory to stop impulsivity individual from their

automatic behavior of instant gratification.

However, how effective each intervention or sub

intervention was not fully discussed, specifically how

each intervention worked under different conditions

and environment. Therefore, this study aims to

analyze the effectiveness of CBT and mindfulness on

academic procrastination. This study searched

empirical studies within the past 10 years in database

such as PsycINFO and Google Scholar. Five articles

were selected from the search, two focused on CBT

intervention and three focused on mindfulness. All

studies aimed to test the effectiveness of the

intervention on academic procrastination among

students. These studies were conducted in different

culture background to validate generalization.

230

Liang, N.

Exploring the Effectiveness of CBT and Mindfulness on Academic Procrastination.

DOI: 10.5220/0014111500004942

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Applied Psychology and Marketing Management (APMM 2025), pages 230-234

ISBN: 978-989-758-791-7

2 IMPACT OF INTERVENTIONS

ON ACADEMIC

PROCRASTINATION

2.1 The Effectiveness of CBT in

Reducing Academic

Procrastination

CBT combines cognitive principles with behavioral

techniques, and it believes that distorted cognitive

pattern and maladaptive behaviors are both the cause

of mental distress and should be adjusted

simultaneously. According to Dryden, CBT helps

reducing procrastination through replacing irrational

beliefs with rational ones since procrastination

behavior rooted in established ways of thinking

(Dryden, 2021).

Rozental et al. conducted an experiment to test the

effectiveness of CBT in treating academic

procrastination. More specifically, compared self-

guided Internet-based CBT (ICBT) and group CBT

(Rozental et al., 2018). The author mentioned why

these two groups were selected. ICBT is not as

commonly available as group CBT, especially in

university setting. Moreover, by comparing these two

methods, helps evaluate the effectiveness in

university setting. The participants were screened by

standardized tests such as Pure Procrastination Scale

(PPS) and the Procrastination Assessment Scale for

Students (PASS) to find participants meeting the

criteria of university students with severe academic

procrastination. This study had a Pragmatic

Randomized Controlled Trial (pRCT). 92 university

students participated this study and were randomly

assigned to two groups (Internet-based CBT (ICBT)

and group CBT). For ICBT group, students received

self-guided, online intervention while group CBT

group had in-person therapy sessions facilitated by

clinicians. Both interventions lasted 8 weeks with a

follow up assessment 6 months after the original

intervention. PPS and PASS were used to measure

procrastination levels both pre- and post-treatment.

Analysis was conducted right after the intervention

and the follow up. To determine how much

procrastination was reduced within each group after

the intervention, participants’ procrastination scores

pre- and post-treatment within each group was

compared. Participants took PPS and PASS before

and after the intervention, effect sizes (Cohen’s d)

were calculated by researcher as quantify the changes

within each group. Both ICBT and Group CBT

resulted in significant reductions in procrastination

scores after treatment (d > 1.2), which means both

ICBT and group CBT were effective in reducing

academic procrastination.

To find out which format (ICBT or Group CBT)

was more effective and their long-term effectiveness,

the researcher firstly checked if the effect maintained

after 6 months. Participants were tested after 6

months with the same scale. Then compared both pre

and post treatment scores with follow up scores. The

results were that group CBT improvements remained

stable while some of the original improvements was

lost over time for ICBT. In conclusion, both ICBT and

group CBT had positive impacts, but group CBT was

more effective compared to ICBT, especially in

maintaining effective over time. However, this study

does have its limitation. One of the biggest is that it

does not have a control group. This study only

compared ICBT group with group CBT group, which

could have missed effect caused by other factors.

Also, the dropout rate of participants was relatively

high (19.6% at post-treatment and 20.7% at follow-

up).

Another study by Toker & Avci also focused on

the effectiveness of CBT intervention (Toker and

Avci, 2015). In this study, 26 university students

participated with 13 each in experimental group and

control group. Each group has 6 females and 7 males

between the age of 19 to 24. Participants were

recruited from various majors including education,

arts, economics and administrative sciences etc.

Students applied voluntarily through university’s

website and was screened by scales including

Academic Procrastination Scale (APS), Melbourne

Decision-Making Questionnaire (MDMQ) etc.

Students with extreme APS scores were excluded

from this study to guarantee comparability.

Additionally, students who received or were receiving

psychiatric treatment, or experienced recent traumatic

events, or had high depression scores were also

excluded from the study. The remaining participants

were randomly assigned to control group and

experimental group. This study used a quasi-

experimental design. During the 8-week session (90

minutes each), participants within the experimental

group received CBT-based Psycho-Educational

program which includes introduction, main activity

and conclusion. 7 scales were used to measure

participants' level of procrastination, resourcefulness,

decision-making, anxiety, depression, and group

processes at pre and post intervention and the follow

up one month after the program ended. Both

quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis was

held. Quantitative analysis was used to measure and

compare the changes in academic procrastination

behaviors. While qualitative analysis was used to

Exploring the Effectiveness of CBT and Mindfulness on Academic Procrastination

231

open ended questions from General Evaluation Form

of Group Processes (GEFGP) for participants’

feedback on their experience. For results, compare to

the control group that received no intervention,

experimental group had significant changes in

academic procrastination behavior, and the changes

was proved to be consistent at follow up. According

to feedback, students reported to find the intervention

helpful in gaining skills against procrastination

behavior. However, this study had some limitations

including small sample size, short follow up periods.

Both studies tested the effectiveness of CBT in

reducing academic procrastination. Moreover, both

studies resulted in significant reductions in academic

procrastination behavior. Additionally, both studies

showed that group CBT had stronger and more

sustainable results. However, the first study used RCT

as study design, which is stronger in proving

effectiveness of the intervention due to stronger

causality. Also, the second study has a control group

which the first study is lacking. Additionally, the first

study has longer followed up duration to measure its

long-term effectiveness while the second study has

much more detailed qualitative information about

participants.

2.2 The Effectiveness of Mindfulness in

Reducing Academic

Procrastination

Mindfulness is a practice of being at the present

without any judgement. It includes focusing on

thoughts, body sensation etc (Kabat-zinn, 2003).

As said by Sirois & Pychyl, procrastination

behavior is driven by the fear of facing the negative

emotions related to the main task (Sirois and Pychyl,

2013). Furthermore, according to Gross &

Thompson, by practicing mindfulness, emotion

regulation could be improved (Gross and Thompson,

2007). Therefore, with better emotion regulation,

procrastination behavior could be reduced through

decreased negative emotions.

A study conducted by Yue, Zhang, & Jing had

supportive results of the effectiveness of mindfulness

on academic procrastination (Yue et al., 2024). In this

study, 733 middle school students (53.3 % female)

from China were recruited with an average age of

13.12. This was a cross-sectional study to test the

relationships between mindfulness and academic

procrastination with learning engagement and harsh

parenting as moderators. All participants completed

questionnaires in a classroom setting under

supervision. Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale

(MAAS) was used to test the level of mindfulness,

Aitken Procrastination Inventory (API) was used to

test the frequency of academic procrastination

behaviors, Utrecht Work Engagement Scale for

Students (UWES-S) was used to test the level of

engagement of students in learning tasks, and Harsh

Parenting Questionnaire was used to assess strict

punishing parenting behaviors. All data was collected

by researchers after a single session to maintain

consistency. SPSS was used to analyze the data, and

all results were statistically significant(p<0.01). More

specifically, the results showed significant negative

correlation between mindfulness and academic

procrastination(r=-0.26), positive relationship

between mindfulness and learning engagement

(r=0.31), and negative correlation between learning

engagement and academic procrastination(r=-0.35).

Additionally, learning engagement mediated the

relationship between mindfulness and academic

procrastination by 52.27%, while harsh parenting

weakened the positive effect of mindfulness on

learning engagement. However, this study has its

limitation, the cross-sectional design collect data at

one time point, only tests the correlation between

variables. Especially for mindfulness, something that

needs practice over time, cross sectional design

cannot show the changes over time.

Another study by Rad et al also focused on the

effects of mindfulness in reducing academic

procrastination (Rad et al., 2023). In this study, 36

undergraduate students in Iran were recruited based

on their high academic procrastination scores with an

average age of 20. With an RCT design, they were

spited into two groups, the mindfulness training

group and the wait-list control group. All participants

completed questionnaires including

Multidimensional Measure of Academic

Procrastination (MMAP), Freiburg Mindfulness

Inventory-Short Form (FMI-SF), Self-Regulation

Questionnaire-Short Form (SSRQ), and General

Health Questionnaire (GHQ) before the intervention.

For the mindfulness training group, the intervention

included over 8 weekly group sessions (90 minutes

each) based on Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction

(MBSR) and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy

(MBCT). While the wait-list control group do not

receive any intervention until the post-test data

collection. Each group was tested again afterwards.

Follow up data was collected after one week. Data

was later analyzed using SPSS. The results showed

significant reductions in academic procrastination

behavior for the mindfulness training group

compared to the wait-list control group and

maintained the improvements after one week. The

mindfulness level and self-regulation scores

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increased while negative emotions and perceived

negative consequences associated with

procrastination were reduced. In brief, this study also

supports the effectiveness of mindfulness in reducing

academic procrastination. However, this study has

limited generalizability due to a small sample size.

Additionally, the follow up session was only one

week after the intervention, lacking measures for long

term sustainability.

Eltayeb conducted a study focused on the

effectiveness of mindfulness in academic

procrastination among female university students at

Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University (Eltayeb,

2021). 206 female students (105 science students, 101

arts students) were randomly selected out of 1890

students. Two scale was used in this study. Both was

designed based on literature review. The mindfulness

scale was refined after pilot testing on 30 students and

the final version of has 28 items (Cronbach's alpha =

0.812). Items 2 and 5 were excluded due to negative

correlation to maintain the internal consistency of the

scale. The Academic Procrastination Scale was

refined based on expert feedback, specifically

excluded item 5 due to its weak correlation. The final

version has 22 items (Cronbach's alpha = 0.818). All

participants completed the scales during the second

semester of the 2019-2020 academic year. Collected

data was later analyzed using SPSS. The result for the

overall level of mindfulness includes mean score of

105.77 (SD = 11.68), t=26.74, and p<0.01, showing

high level of mindfulness among students. Students

also scored high on procrastination (Mean = 68.02,

SD = 12.34, t =2.35, p=0.02). In addition, for the

correlation between mindfulness and procrastination,

a significant negative correlation was observed (r

=−0.472, p<0.01). This finding indicates that higher

levels of mindfulness is related to lower levels of

procrastination. However, this study uses a

descriptive correlational design which cannot test

causality, only the association between mindfulness

and academic procrastination. Also, this study only

recruited female students, which means the results

may not be generalized to other gender.

In conclusion, all three studies focused on the

effectiveness of mindfulness in reducing academic

procrastination. All three studies found that higher

level of mindfulness is related to lower academic

procrastination. However, the first study used cross-

sectional design while the second study used RCT

design, which provided stronger evidence than the

other two studies. Also, the possible impact of gender,

cultural and age differences between the participants

of the three studies could have potentially influenced

the results.

3 CONCLUSION

The main purpose of this study is to analyze the

effectiveness of the two interventions (CBT and

mindfulness) on academic procrastination based on

existing research. According to the findings

mentioned above, both CBT and mindfulness are

effective in improving academic procrastination.

Moreover, studies indicate that group CBT has better

and longer impacts on academic procrastination. The

result of this study suggests that both CBT and

mindfulness interventions can be used in decrease

academic procrastination behavior. The purpose of

this study is to explore evidence based practical

interventions in improving academic procrastination.

Which lays the foundation for future research in this

topic and possible creation or combination of new

interventions in decreasing academic procrastination

behavior or procrastination in general.

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