Do Perceptions of Remaining Life Shape Procrastination? Evidence from Latent Class and Bayesian Models
Abstract
Procrastination is often linked to temporal orientation, with individuals who emphasise future consequences typically reporting lower levels of procrastination. However, it remains unclear whether subjective remaining life influences procrastination either directly or by modifying the effect of temporal orientation. This study examined associations between temporal orientation, subjective remaining life, and procrastination in a cross-sectional sample of 140 adults aged 18–77 years. Latent class analysis identified two temporal orientation profiles: a high future, low immediate orientation group (45.1%) and a neutral orientation group (54.9%). Bayesian regression models accounting for uncertainty in class membership indicated little evidence that subjective remaining life was associated with procrastination or moderated the effect of temporal orientation. In contrast, stronger future orientation was credibly associated with lower procrastination. Overall, subjective perceptions of remaining life appear to play a limited role in explaining procrastination tendencies.
Code
All the raw code and data for this paper is available in a GitHub repository.