Health-related procrastination, occupational stress, and job insecurity among private school teachers

Abstract

Procrastination is an act of postponing a task despite anticipating a worse situation later. It adversely affects performance and outcomes in academic and work settings. Apart from performance, it also has adverse consequences for health (physical and mental). Despite the abundance of studies about procrastination, in general, there is a dearth of research about health-related procrastination. Fewer studies have shed light on the phenomena and possible factors affecting it. This study explores the role of occupational stress and job insecurity as two factors affecting health-related procrastination among private school teachers. This correlational study was conducted on 100 teachers working in private schools in varanasi. These teachers were chosen, employing a purposive sampling method. The data collection was done using the health-related procrastination questionnaire, job insecurity scale, and occupational stress index. Finally, the data was analyzed using SPSS software. Results indicate that occupational stress was significantly correlated with exercise procrastination and healthy diet procrastination but job insecurity was not. Stepwise multiple regression analysis was performed to examine the role of demographic variables (BMI and self-rated health) and occupational stress in predicting exercise procrastination and healthy diet procrastination. Results indicate that the only significant predictor of exercise procrastination is body mass index and the only best predictor of healthy diet procrastination is occupational stress. Both exercise and healthy diet procrastination also predict each other in the regression model. In general, the results depict that reducing occupational stress and a balanced BMI can lead to less health-related procrastination, which may promote better health.