The Emergence and Development of Procrastination
Recently, our lab has begun to examine the emergence and development of young children's procrastination behaviour. We are interested in how procrastination tendencies and behaviours emerge and develop in early childhood as well as how procrastination behaviour relates to future thinking and self control. In particular, we view procrastination as a failure of future thinking. Indeed, when an undesirable task is delayed, children are prioritizing their current self but are punishes their future self who will have to face the undesirable task.
In our 2023 paper published in Developmental Psychology, we adapted a procrastination questionnaire for parents of preschool-aged children. If you are interested in using the Preschool Procrastination Scale, please see Fuke et al. (2023) or get in touch with Dr. Mahy.
Current research is examining:
(1) the emergence and development of young children's procrastination behaviour and its relation to future thinking and executive function (Fuke, Kamber, Alunni, & Mahy, 2023)
(2) the role of temperament, personality, and home environment in predicting young children's procrastination tendencies (Kamber, Fuke, Alunni, & Mahy, revision requested)
(3) the development of valid behavioural tasks that capture young children's procrastination and differences between delay and maladaptive procrastination and its cognitive correlates (Kamber & Mahy, in progress)
In our 2023 paper published in Developmental Psychology, we adapted a procrastination questionnaire for parents of preschool-aged children. If you are interested in using the Preschool Procrastination Scale, please see Fuke et al. (2023) or get in touch with Dr. Mahy.
Current research is examining:
(1) the emergence and development of young children's procrastination behaviour and its relation to future thinking and executive function (Fuke, Kamber, Alunni, & Mahy, 2023)
(2) the role of temperament, personality, and home environment in predicting young children's procrastination tendencies (Kamber, Fuke, Alunni, & Mahy, revision requested)
(3) the development of valid behavioural tasks that capture young children's procrastination and differences between delay and maladaptive procrastination and its cognitive correlates (Kamber & Mahy, in progress)
Relevant Publications
Fuke, T. S. S., Kamber, E., Alunni, M., & Mahy, C. E. V. (2023). The emergence of procrastination behaviour in early childhood: Relations with executive control and future-oriented cognition. Developmental Psychology, 59, 579-593. [PDF]
