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Review
. 2023 Mar 13;20(6):5031.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph20065031.

Procrastination and Stress: A Conceptual Review of Why Context Matters

Fuschia M Sirois  1
Affiliations
Review

Procrastination and Stress: A Conceptual Review of Why Context Matters

Fuschia M Sirois. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Research over the past two decades has continued to highlight the robust associations between procrastination and stress across multiple populations and contexts. Despite this burgeoning evidence base and theory linking procrastination to higher levels of stress, as well as the reverse, the role of context in this potentially dynamic association has received relatively little attention. In this conceptual review I argue that from a mood regulation perspective of procrastination, stressful contexts necessarily increase risk for procrastination because they deplete coping resources and lower the threshold for tolerating negative emotions. Drawing on insights from coping and emotion regulation theory, the new stress context vulnerability model of procrastination proposes that the risk for procrastination increases in stressful contexts primarily because procrastination is a low-resource means of avoiding aversive and difficult task-related emotions. The new model is then applied to evidence on the primary and secondary sources of stress during the COVID-19 pandemic and how they may have increased vulnerability for procrastination. After discussing potential applications of the new model for understanding how and why risk for procrastination may increase in other stressful contexts, approaches that might mitigate vulnerability for procrastination in high-stress contexts are discussed. Overall, this new stress context vulnerability model underscores the need for taking a more compassionate view of the antecedents and factors that may increase the risk for procrastination.

Keywords: COVID-19; coping; emotion regulation; personality; procrastination; stress.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Stress context vulnerability model of procrastination. Note: High-stress contexts are proposed to increase vulnerability for procrastination via depletion of coping resources and lowering tolerance for negative states. Procrastination is used as an avoidant coping strategy to manage negative task-related emotions, and subsequently generates further stress through intrapersonal appraisal processes, thereby amplifying contextual stress in a cyclic and dynamic manner.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Stress context vulnerability model of procrastination applied to the COVID-19 pandemic. Note: Four main sources of stress during the COVID-19 pandemic are posited to contribute to vulnerability for procrastination through coping overload, which depletes coping resources, and by compromising sleep quality and a cumulation of negative states, which lower the tolerance for negative states. The procrastination that results further amplifies this stress in a cyclic manner.
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Grants and funding

This research received no external funding.