The effectiveness of step-by-step self-regulation in elementary school Students ’procrastination in doing homework

The objective of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of step-by-step self-regulation in academic procrastination of elementary school students in Arak. The method of this study was experimental in which a pre-test-post-test design with control group was used. The statistical population consisted of all fifth and sixth grade students in Arak in the academic year of 2017-2018Eighty students (i.e., 40 boys and 40 girls) with high range of procrastination which was identified by means of Procrastination scale were selected. They were divided into 4 groups: two experimental groups (i.e., 20 girls and 20 boys) and two control groups (i.e., 20 girls and 20 boys). A Step-by-step self-regulation package was implemented in the experimental groups. However, no intervention was applied to the control groups. For the sake of data collection, Savari’s Academic Procrastination scale  used. The results indicated that there was a significant difference between the mean of academic procrastination in girls, and that of boys in the experimental and control groups. Moreover, the results showed that there were significant differences between the means of girls' performance in terms of intentional academic procrastination, academic procrastination caused by physical-mental fatigue, academic procrastination caused by unscrupulousness and the mean of boys' performance in terms of deliberate academic procrastination, academic procrastination caused by physical-mental fatigue, and academic procrastination caused by unscrupulousness (P<0.01). The results of t-test showed that step-by-step self -regulation method did not have any significant effect on girls and boys 'academic procrastination. In general, the results of the study showed that step-by-step self-regulation was effective in decreasing the students' procrastination and could be a helpful method for school counselors and psychologists to reduce the students ’procrastination.