How to Help Students Overcome Academic Procrastination

University Hospital Basel

Status: Active, not recruiting

Conditions: Procrastination

Treatments: Other: Cognitive-behavioral treatment (CBT); Other: Imaginary pill treatment (IP)

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05730101

024-22-01 ub23Heimgartner;

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to evaluate two different treatment methods in a sample of procrastinating students of the University of Basel and the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland. As first treatment, a cognitive-behavioral treatment has been chosen as these type of treatment already showed promising results in reducing students' procrastination behavior. The alternative to the more time-intensive cognitive-behavioral treatment is the application of imaginary pills to students suffering from procrastination.

This study evaluates the potential of the cognitive-behavioral and the imaginary pill treatment to reduce procrastination in a three-arm randomized controlled trial with parallel group between-subject design.

Full description

Procrastination can be defined as "to voluntarily delay an intended course of action despite expecting to be worse off for the delay". Academic procrastination is limited to tasks and activities related to and/or relevant to learning and studying and manifests itself in consistently postponing studying for exams, submitting assignments late, and failing to register for classes in time. Despite the high prevalence of procrastination and the negative consequences on health and well-being, there is still no gold standard of treatment. The purpose of this study is to evaluate two different treatment methods in a sample of procrastinating students of the University of Basel and the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland. As first treatment, a cognitive-behavioral treatment has been chosen as these type of treatment already showed promising results in reducing students' procrastination behavior. The alternative to the more time-intensive cognitive-behavioral treatment is the application of imaginary pills to students suffering from procrastination.

This study evaluates the potential of the cognitive-behavioral and the imaginary pill treatment to reduce procrastination in a three-arm randomized controlled trial with parallel group between-subject design.

Enrollment: 120 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 40 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Male and female Bachelor's and Master's students of the University of Basel and the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW)
• Age between 18 and 40
• Self-reported academic procrastination criterion is fulfilled (IPS value ≥ 29 points)
• Healthy by self-report statement (i.e., no known current physiological or psychological disorders, not taking medication, not in psychological/psychiatric treatment)
• Willing to participate in the study
• Sufficient German language skills to follow the instructions and participate in group sessions

Exclusion criteria

• Self-reported academic procrastination criteria not fulfilled: IPS < 29
• Any current psychological or physiological disease
• Current psychological or psychiatric treatment
• Current intake of psychotropic medication
• Insufficient German language skills to understand the instructions or discuss in group sessions
• Daily consumption of more than three alcoholic standard beverages (a standard alcoholic beverage is defined as either 3dl beer or 1dl wine or 2cl spirits)
• Regular drug consumption (THC, cocaine, heroin, etc.)

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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120 participants in 3 patient groups

No treatment waitlist group

No Intervention group

Description:

Participants receive neither cognitive-behavioral nor imaginary pill treatment and are told that they are in the no treatment waitlist group. They are told that they can receive one of the treatments at the end of the study. The treatment they receive will be chosen based on study results.

Cognitive-behavioral treatment group (CBT)

Active Comparator group

Description:

Participants receive two individual and six group sessions with a therapist following the treatment manual "Prokrastination".

Treatment:

Other: Cognitive-behavioral treatment (CBT)

Imaginary pill treatment group (IP)

Active Comparator group

Description:

In accordance with the imaginary pill technique, participants are instructed to take an imaginary pill. This instruction consists of a procedure including five steps (i.e., 1) identifying the IP sensitive problem, 2) building trust/belief/reality of the IP, 3) constructing a personally meaningful IP, 4) taking the IP, 5) suggestions for self-administering the IP in real life and building adherence. The session is repeated with small modifications seven weeks later.

Treatment:

Other: Imaginary pill treatment (IP)