Typology of extra-curricular activities and academic procrastination among primary education students

© Education & Psychology I+D+i and Ilustre Colegio oficial de la Psicologi´a de Andaluci´a Oriental. Introduction: Some previous studies have shown that participation in extra-curricular activities optimises both academic grades and the socialisation process of students. However, nobody has so far related extracurricular activities with a tendency for academic procrastination; that is, the more or less deep-rooted habit of leaving study tasks until a later time. This work relates these two variables and is the first of its kind in this field. Method: We collected questionnaires completed by the parents of a total of 417 students in the mid- and upper-cycles of primary education (8 to 13 years). To identify participation in extra-curricular activities two parameters were used: the type of activities and the number of years that students have been doing them. In order to measure academic procrastination a scale of 0 (no procrastination) to 10 (high level or regular procrastination) was used. Results: The results indicate that both the type of extra-curricular activity and the number of years doing it, and also the level of academic procrastination perceived by the parents, show clear differentiated signs between girls and boys. Additionally, male students improve in terms of academic procrastination reported by their parents after 4 years' experience in extracurricular sports activities; in contrast, girls have a greater control over academic procrastination perceived by their parents after 4 years of extracurricular artistic activities. Discussion and conclusion: The results are generally coherent with previous studies and also broaden the knowledge in that they look at procrastination and extra-curricular activities jointly and also introduce gender differentiation, which allows the design of extracurricular activities scenarios that are more suited and customized for every one of the pupils in primary education.