Abstract:

Procrastination in students includes a postponement of duties, which can have various consequences if it is not handled correctly. On the other hand, academic commitment implies the engagement of students in the learning process. It aims to know the relationship of both terms in the virtual educational context, for which an investigation was carried out with a mixed sequential approach (quantitative and then qualitative). The first part of the research was quantitative, non-experimental, cross-sectional and with a correlational scope. In this first stage, the sample consisted of 138 high school students from different educational institutions in Lima, Peru. The sample had an average age of 14.63 (SD = 2.1), 57% were women and 43% men, 62% studied in public institutions while 38% in private institutions. In order to assess academic procrastination, the The Academic Procrastination Scale (EPA) was used, and the Utrecht Academic Engagement Scale (UWES-S) was applied to measure academic commitment with its three dimensions: dedication, vigor and absorption. The second part had a qualitative approach with a phenomenological design in which the objective was to know the reasons for academic procrastination in the context of virtual learning. The participants in this sample were 12 high school students from different educational institutions.

In the first stage of the research, a significant and inverse relationship between procrastination and academic commitment (r = -.31, p <.01) was found. In the same way, procrastination was inversely correlated with all dimensions of academic engagement: dedication (r = -.37, p <.01), vigor (r = -.26, p <.01) and absorption (r = - .30, p <.01). Significant differences between the types of schools were found: private school students have higher procrastination scores. Similarly, a higher procrastination score is observed in male students. In the second stage of the study, it was found that the main reasons for procrastinating in the context of virtual education are categorized as follows: (1) Related to social networks, students seek to have more contact with their classmates, which leads to look for greater interaction through different social networks (WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, etc.). Likewise, social networks bring them closer to contacting groups of people with similar interests, since the pandemic limits them to having contact from a screen with people outside their family core. This leads them to invest several hours a week in various social applications, deferring academic homework. (2) Related to the family, parents seeing their children at home all day, grant greater domestic responsibilities to adolescents so that they have a "busy" day. The findings indicate that academic procrastination in students in a virtual context because of the Covid-19 pandemic, is due to socialization needs, which are satisfied through social networks; and to the demand of parents to make their children's days more productive.