The Relationship between Internet Addiction and Academic Procrastination among Secondary School Students

Academic procrastination is one of the barriers to academic success and educational objectives. On the one hand, computers and internet as essential tools facilitate people’s life; on the other hand, they bring about new dangers and problems. One of these dangers can be ignoring academic success. The aim of the present study is to probe the relationship between internet addiction and academic procrastination among secondary school students. This research is a descriptive correlative study. The population of the study consisted of all secondary students of Najafabad city in 1393-94 school year. Using one-step cluster sampling one secondary school was selected. The sample included 124 students. Yang’s Internet Addiction Questionnaire and Savari’s Academic Procrastination Questionnaire were used as research instruments. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation and Linear Regression. Results indicated that there is a positive relationship between internet addiction and academic procrastination (r=. /52, p≤. /01). Internet addiction predicts 26/9 percent of variance in academic procrastination. Among students non-addicted to internet the correlation reduced to r=./46 (P≤./01). In general, it can be concluded that internet dependence can be a strong predictor of academic procrastination. This prediction is weaker among non-addicted students. On the other hand, less internet dependence decreases procrastination. Based on obtained results, the need for implementing strategies to prevent and cope with internet dependence is inferred.