The triangle of anxiety, perfectionism, and academic procrastination: exploring the correlates in medical and dental students

Academic procrastination is a common phenomenon among medical science students. This issue can negatively affect the students’ academic performance. The aim of this study was to investigate perfectionism and anxiety as potential predictors of academic procrastination in medical and dental students.

This cross-sectional study was conducted among medical and dental students of a public medical sciences university in the south of Iran. Students were assessed using the procrastination assessment scale for students (PASS), Tehran multidimensional perfectionism scale (TMPS), and anxiety subscale of the general health questionnaire (GHQ). Predictors of academic procrastination were evaluated using multiple regression analysis with adjustments made for gender and academic semester.

A total of 176 medical and 79 dental students participated in the study. None of the perfectionism components were predictors of academic procrastination. However, anxiety was a significant predictor of academic procrastination in the total sample of students (standardized β = 0.404, p < 0.001), as well as dental (standardized β = 0.356, p < 0.001) and medical (standardized β = 0.478, p < 0.001) students. Anxiety and academic procrastination were both negatively correlated with students’ grade point averages.

The findings of this study suggest that anxiety, as opposed to perfectionism, has a more significant influence on academic procrastination among medical and dental students. Interventions aimed at lowering anxiety may be beneficial for reducing academic procrastination, thereby enhancing the academic performance of the students.