Relationship of academic procrastination with perceived competence, coping, self-esteem and self-efficacy in nursing students.

Objective: The aim of this study was to study the role that perceived competence, resilient coping, self-esteem and self-efficacy can have as protective factors of the academic procrastination of nursing students.

Method: Participants were 237 nursing students, 202 women and 35 men. The participants answered a questionnaire that contained the Spanish forms of the following instruments: Tuckman Procrastination Scale (TPS), Perceived Personal Competence Scale (PPC), Brief Resilient Coping Scale (BRCS), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) and General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE).

Results: Significant and negative correlation coefficients (p<.01) were obtained between the procrastination scale and the rest of the measures used. The linear regression analysis identified Perceived Competence (PPC) as the only predictive variable of procrastinating behaviour, explaining 21.5% (Raj) of the variance.

Discussion: The results of the study show the important protective role that the variables associated with 'positive' psychology have on procrastination. Of special relevance for the theory and practice of teaching is the result that indicates the predictive role of Perceived Competence on the academic procrastination of students.