Effect of Different Types of Teacher Support on Students’ Academic Procrastination – Testing the Mediating Effect of Students’ Mastery Orientation and Learned Helplessness

Data on students’ assessment of teacher support, their academic procrastination and perceptions of mastery orientation and learned helplessness were collected from a sample of 311 undergraduate students. The purpose of current study is to examine the effect of different types of teacher support on students’ academic procrastination. Students’ perceptions of their mastery orientation and learned helplessness are hypothesized as intervening variables of the relationship between different types of teacher support and academic procrastination. Results support that teachers emotional and instrumental support negatively affect feeling of learned helplessness while informational support positively affects the mastery orientation of students. Indirect effect of teachers’ informational support on students’ academic procrastination was supported via mastery orientation while the indirect effects emotional support on academic procrastination was supported via perceptions of learned helplessness. These findings highlight the importance of different types of teacher support on students’ academic procrastination behaviors. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.