Academic Risk Taking Behavior in University Students: Academic Procrastination, Academic Locus of Control, and Academic Perfectionism

The aim of this study was to examine how academic procrastination, academic locus of control, and academic perfectionism predicts the tendency of university students’ academic risk taking. Also, this study focused on understanding how academic procrastination, academic locus of control, and academic perfectionism of university students had power to predict the students' tendency of academic risk taking. Research Methods: The study group of this research consisted of 507 (351 female and 154 male) undergraduate students studying at a state university in Turkey during the 2018-2019 academic-year fall semester. The study group was identified using convenient sampling. In this study, the "Personal Information Form", "Academic Risk Taking Scale", “Academic Procrastination Scale”, "Perceived Social Self-efficacy Scale", “Academic Locus of Control Scale”, and “Academic Perfectionism Scale” were used to collect data. The Pearson Moments Multiplication Correlation Coefficient (r) and stepwise multiple regression analysis were used in the analysis of the data. The upper margin of error is assumed to be 0.05. Findings: According to the findings obtained, academic procrastination, academic locus of control, and academic perfectionism respectively predicted the academic risk-taking behaviors of university students significantly. Accordingly, as the academic procrastination, academic external locus of control, and academic perfectionism decreased, academic internal locus of control increased, and academic risk-taking behavior increased as well. Implications forResearch and Practice: Research can be done by using other variables to understand academic risk-taking behavior. In addition, various activities can be planned for students to take more risks in academic life, to show less procrastination behavior and to have more internal locus of control