Effect of time attitude on academic performance of high school students: a moderated mediation model

Time attitude describes how people feel and think about the past, present, and future. It plays a crucial role in the academic performance of students. In this Study, we construct a moderated mediation using latent variable modeling to investigate the mediating role of academic procrastination in the association between the time attitude and academic performance of Chinese high school students and the moderating role of academic self-efficacy. A total of 371 Chinese adolescents (M = 16.53 and SD = 0.50) completed time attitude, academic performance, academic procrastination, and self-efficacy measures. The results indicated that academic procrastination fully mediated the relationship between positive time attitude and academic performance. Additionally, it was proposed that it partially mediated the relationship between a negative past, negative present, negative future time attitude, and academic performance. Moreover, academic competence and academic behavior of self-efficacy moderated the relationship between academic procrastination and academic performance; the higher the level of self-efficacy for academic competence and academic behavior, the lower the effect of academic procrastination on academic performance. The Study results have implications for the effects of time attitude on the academic performance of high school students and directions for future intervention research.