The procrastination trap: How temperament undermines students’ career readiness in Poland

Klaudia Martynowska, Piotr Mamcarz, Ewa Domagała-Zyśk, Alessandro Lo Presti and Andrew Rothwell

PLOS ONE, 2026, vol. 21, issue 10, 1-21

Abstract: This study examines links between temperament, procrastination tendencies, and self-perceived employability among Polish university students, addressing a notable gap in research on behavioral postponement effects in European higher education contexts. Cross-sectional survey data were collected from 522 first-year undergraduates enrolled in 16 fields of study at a mid-sized Polish university. Temperament was assessed with the Formal Characteristics of Behaviour – Temperament Inventory, Revised (FCB-TI(R)); procrastination with the Polish version of Lay’s General Procrastination Scale, scored as a single general index; and self-perceived employability with the Polish Self-Perceived Employability Scale (internal and external subscales). Grade point average (GPA) was obtained from university records. Bootstrapped regression-based models estimated the indirect association between each of the seven temperament dimensions and internal employability through procrastination. Procrastination was associated with lower briskness, rhythmicity, sensory sensitivity, endurance and activity, and with higher emotional reactivity and perseveration. For all seven dimensions the indirect association with internal employability through procrastination was significant, with completely standardised indirect effects between .02 and .05; for endurance and rhythmicity the association was indirect only. Procrastination was also associated with lower GPA (r = −.17) and with lower external employability (r = −.18), whereas GPA was unrelated to any employability index. Because the design is cross-sectional and all predictors were measured concurrently, these findings describe patterns of association that are consistent with, but do not establish, a mediating process. The results identify temperamentally patterned procrastination as a modifiable correlate of students’ career confidence, and caution against treating academic grades as a proxy for employability readiness.

Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0358981

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0358981

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