A Path Investigation of NEO-PI Factors and Gender on Academic Procrastination of Adolescents in Senior Secondary Schools in Calabar, Nigeria

Abstract

The study constructed and tested the NEOPI model and gender factor in explaining academic procrastination of 400 selected Senior Secondary School students in Calabar, Cross River state, Nigeria. The participants responded to instruments as measures of the predictors (Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreableness, Conscietiousness and gender factor) and criterion measure (academic procrastination). Data generated were subjected to multiple regression and path analytic techniques for the estimation of the standardized path coefficients of the structural equation generated from the paths produced in the model. The results showed that the most meaningful causal model was plausible with ten significant and meaningful pathways. When taken together, the predictor variables accounted for 15.1% of the total effect, out of which 99.98% and 99.96% were direct and indirect respectively. The implications for these findings for the students, parents, teachers, school administrators, school counsellors, curriculum developers and policy makers were discussed.

Keywords: Academic procrastination, Gender, NEO-PI