Comparing Hope, Executive Function, and Procrastination in University Students: Implications for a Post-COVID-19 World

The global pandemic has impacted variously on students’ experiences of education globally. At this time, we must continue to isolate the key components contributing to supporting students’ academic performance so that education systems can begin to reduce the impact of this pandemic on children’s lives.

We used the ex post facto research to compare hope, executive functions, and procrastination between students with high and low academic performances. The authors hope to contribute positively to rebuilding our education system as we move to a post-pandemic phase. The statistical population consisted of students with high and low academic performances at the University of Bojnurd, Bojnurd City, Iran, from 2019 to 2020. A total of 85 students were selected as samples using the available sampling method. The research data were collected using the behavior rating inventory of executive function for adults, the procrastination assessment scale for students, and the domain-specific hope scale.

The results showed a statistically significant difference between the two groups of students regarding the mean scores of executive functions and academic procrastination. In this regard, the scores of executive functions were reduced, but the academic procrastination in students with low performance was significantly higher than the high-performance students. The group factor predicted a significant amount of variance in the examined components. Nevertheless, there was no significant difference between the two groups in the hope variable except for the academic hope subscale.

The results have implications for understanding students’ academic performances and the use of interventions that can improve students’ outcomes in the future.