academic procrastination, overconfidence and parental unrealistic ...

The African Symposium: An online journal of the African Educational Research Network 

ACADEMIC PROCRASTINATION, OVERCONFIDENCE AND PARENTAL UNREALISTIC 

EXPECTATIONS AS CORRELATES OF ACADEMIC REBELLIOUSNESS AMONG SOME 

NIGERIAN UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS 

Ruth Adunola Aderanti 

Taiwo Motolani Williams 

Comfort Adebola Oyinloye 

Ngozi Caroline Uwanna 

Babcock University 

Abstract 

The study examined the relationship between academic procrastination, overconfidence and 

parental unrealistic expectations on the academic rebelliousness of undergraduate students in Ogun 

State, Nigeria. Two hundred and fifty participants were randomly selected from a tertiary 

institution in Ogun State, Nigeria. Multiple regression analysis was employed to determine the joint 

and relative contributions of the independent variables to the prediction of the dependent variable. 

The results showed a relationship between academic procrastination, overconfidence and academic 

rebelliousness of the students. The multiple correlation coefficient (R 2 = .082) indicating a joint 

contribution of the independent variables on the dependent variable was recorded for this study. 

Further verification using regression analysis of variance (ANOVA) produced F (3, 194) =5.765; P< 

0.05).This study, also conclusively found that overconfidence and academic procrastination 

relatively contributed to the prediction of academic rebelliousness of the undergraduate students. 

Implications for adolescent counseling are discussed in the study. 

Key Words: Academic Procrastination, Overconfidence, Parental Unrealistic 

Expectations, Academic Rebelliousness, Undergraduates 

Introduction 

Rebellious behavior is common among young people. The Federal Bureau of Investigation 

(2000) observed that rebelliousness of the young people may be due in part to parental insecurity and 

the inability to find meaning in society and life. Rebellious behavior among youths manifests in 

various antisocial ways such as, robbery, lying, drug addiction, rape, hooliganism, truancy, and 

cheating (Aderanti, 2011). Academic related rebelliousness, in the context of this work, refers to a 

deliberate involvement in academic misconducts such as boycott of lecture, inattention in class, 

unwillingness to participate in class work, assignments, and project and lack of will power. Other 

attributes of academic rebelliousness include truancy (Mathye, 2004) cited in (Aderanti, 2011), 

dropping out of school (Jessor and Jessor, 1997), and various forms of cheating such as examination 

malpractice (Aderanti, 2007). 

A number of theories have given credence to the facts above. For instance, the social learning 

theory proposed that deviant behavior (rebelliousness) of adolescents is learned through models 

(parents and peers). The control theory believed that adolescents without social control such as setting 

of rules and codes and not receiving enough support and modeling can lead to deviant behavior 

(Agnew, 2005). Fayombo (2001) agreed that the action of parents and the demands they make of their 

children can have lasting effects on the behavior of their children. 

Therefore, the present study seeks to find out if Parental unrealistic expectations, 

overconfidence and academic procrastination can influence academic rebelliousness of 

undergraduates in Nigeria. 

Review of Literature 

Academic Procrastination 

Evidence from past research shows that various authors defined procrastination in various 

forms. For instance, Lay (1986) conceived procrastination as a frequent failure at doing what ought to 

be done to reach goals while Ellis and Knaus (2002) described procrastination as the desire to avoid 

an activity, the promise to get it late, and the use of excuse making to justify the delay and avoid 

blame. Furthermore, Furthermore, Noran (2000) considers a procrastinator as someone who knows 

12 Volume 13, No. 1, June 2013 The African Symposium (ISSN# 2326-8077)


what he/she and planning to perform the task, but does not complete the task, or excessively delays 

performing the task. Thus, working on less important obligation, rather than fulfilling the more 

important obligation, or (s) he may use his or her time wastefully in some minor activities or pleasure. 

Past studies revealed that procrastination is related to poor academic performance (Çakıcı, 2003; 

Fritzsche, Young, and Hickson, 2003), unpunctuality, difficulty in following instructions (Lay,1986; 

Rothblum, Solomon, and Murakami, 1986), low effort for success (Saddler and Buley, 1999), 

inadequate motivation(Sene´cal, Koestner, and Vallerand, 1995). Popoola (2005) noted that the lives 

of university students are characterized by frequent deadlines given by university teachers and 

administrators to carry out various responsibilities such as registration for courses,completion of 

course forms and submission of class assignments or term papers. O'Brien (2002), stated that selfreport 

by students suggested that 80-95 per cent engage in procrastination of some sort and almost 50 

per cent procrastinate consistently, which leads to problems with assignments or other set tasks (Day, 

Mensink, & O'Sullivan, 2000; Onwuegbuzie, 2000). 

Overconfidence 

Too much confidence among students can be harmful. Rouchier and Tanimura (2011) 

described overconfidence as the tendency to overestimate the precision of one's information - people 

tend to state (and act as if) their belief was more certain than it actually is. Thus, the performance 

regarding a given task also has a huge impact: when being repeatedly successful, an individual will 

become overconfident, and turn out to be less sensitive to the perception of their following success or 

errors (Hilary & Menzly, 2006). Overconfident students most times credit themselves too much when 

they are successful thus, becoming proud and loosing focus of their primary aims of attaining 

excellence in their studies. This statement re-affirms an earlier statement made by Hilary & Menzly 

(2006) who noted that, once overconfidence is installed, individuals do not care about the actual 

result of their choice and do not reevaluate their confidence and consequently, this usually leads to an 

increase of bad choices for the ones that were initially successful. 

Perceived parental Unrealistic expectations 

Parents usually have unrealistic expectations for their children. Indeed, parent child system is 

related to child’s sociometric status (Barth and Parke, 1993; Putallaz and Heflin, 1990). The basic 

factor in child development is the social relationships and among all social relationships, the 

relationship between parents and child is very crucial one. Parents’ expectations have been shown to 

be a significant predictor of student success across age groups, races, and nationalities (Seginer, 1983; 

Kaplan, Liu, and Kaplan, 2001). 

The aim of this study is to find out if parental unrealistic expectations, overconfidence and 

academic procrastination, can promote academic rebelliousness among undergraduates. This was 

achieved by posing the following questions: 

Research Questions 

1. What is the relationship between the independent variables (Parental unrealistic expectations, 

Overconfidence and academic procrastination) and undergraduates’ academic rebelliousness? 

2. What is the combined influence of Parental unrealistic expectations, Overconfidence and 

academic procrastination on undergraduates academic rebelliousness? 

3. What is the relative influence of Parental unrealistic expectations, Overconfidence and 

academic procrastination on undergraduates’ academic rebelliousness? 

Methodology 

Research Design 

The design of the study is the descriptive design of expost-facto type. Ex-post facto type is a 

systematic empirical inquiry in which the researcher does not have direct control on the independent 

variables because their manifestations had already occurred (Kerlinger & Lee, 2000). This simply 

implies that, the researcher usually has no control over the variables under study and therefore, 

cannot manipulate them. 



Population and sample of the study 

The population of this study comprised of undergraduates attending a private tertiary 

institution in Ogun State, Nigeria. It was from this population of undergraduate that, the researchers 

purposively sampled two hundred and fifty participants for the purpose of this study. The sample was 

drawn from three hundred level students because; it is believed that this group has spent more than 

four academic semesters in the school. 

Instrumentation 

The instruments used for the study were: 

Academic procrastination 

Aitken Procrastination Inventory (API) designed by Aitken (1982) was used to measure the 

tendency of students to procrastination in their academic tasks. The scale with one dimension, 

consisting of 19 items, is a 5-point one. Participants indicate the extent to which they believe in 

statements such as “If I had an important project to do, I’d get started on it as quickly as possible”. 

The statements are rated on a 5- point Likert scales ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. 

Aitken (1982) reported a coefficient alpha of .82.High scores indicate that the students have a high 

level of procrastination behavior. 

Overconfidence Scale 

Self-developed scale was used to measure the overconfidence level of the students. The scale 

consists of 10 items. Examples of items on the scale include: Passing my assessments at first attempt 

is not a problem and I always know what I’m doing. The items were measured on a 4 point Likert 

scale ranging from Very Unsure to Very sure. A Cronbach alpha of 0.67 was obtained in order to 

ascertain the suitability of the scale for the study. 

Rebelliousness Scale 

Student Survey of Risk and Protective Factors/Rebelliousness scale was used to assess the 

level of rebelliousness of the undergraduates. A Reliability coefficient of 0.78 was obtained for the 

scale by the authors. Number of items on the scale is 3. Examples of items on the scale include: I do 

the opposite of what people tell me, just to get them mad and I ignore rules that get in my way 

Parental Unrealistic expectation Scale 

A self-developed scale was used to measure the overconfidence level of the students. The scale 

consists of 10 items. Examples of items on the scale include: “Everyone expects me to get along very 

well with my school mates and being in school is my parents’ decision”. These items were measured 

on a 4 point Likert scales ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. A Cronbach alpha value of 

0.66 was obtained for the scale. 

Data analysis 

The data collected was analyzed using the Multiple Regression Analysis and Pearson product moment 

correlation. 

Results 

Research Question One 

What is the relationship between the independent variables (academic procrastination, 

Overconfidence and Parental unrealistic expectations) and undergraduates’ academic rebelliousness? 



Table 1 

Correlation between Academic Procrastination and Academic Rebelliousness 

Academic 

Rebelliousness Academic Procrastination 

Academic 

Pearson 

Rebelliousness Correlation 

1 .157(*) 

Sig. (2-tailed) .027 

N 198 198 

Academic 

Pearson 

Procrastination Correlation 

.157(*) 1 


N 198 198 

* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). 

Table 1 shows that there is a significant relationship between academic procrastination of the students 

and their academic rebelliousness. The value obtained was 0.027. 

Table 2 

Correlation between Overconfidence and Academic Rebelliousness 

Academic 

Rebelliousness 

Overconfidence 

Academic 

Rebelliousness Overconfidence 

Pearson 

Correlation 

1 .204(**) 


N 198 198 

Pearson 

Correlation 

.204(**) 1 


N 198 198 

** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). 

Table 2 shows that there is a significant relationship between overconfidence level of the students and 

their academic rebelliousness. The value obtained was 0.004. 

Table 3 

Correlation between Parental Unrealistic Expectations and Academic Rebelliousness 

Parental Unrealistic 

Academic 

Expectations 

Rebelliousness 

Academic 

Pearson 

Rebelliousness Correlation 

1 .088 


N 198 198 

Parental 

Pearson 

Unrealistic Correlation 

Expectations 

.088 1 


N 198 198 

Table 3 shows that there is no significant relationship between parental unrealistic expectations of the 

students and their academic rebelliousness. The value obtained was 0.220. 



Research Question Two 

What is the combined influence of Parental unrealistic expectations, Overconfidence and 

academic procrastination on undergraduates academic rebelliousness? 

Table 4 

The composite effect of the Independent variables on academic rebelliousness 

Adjusted 

Sig. 

Model R R Square R Square F 

1 .261 .068 .054 4.740 0.003 

Significant at P


than overconfidence. A student may become too overconfident and then assume that he/ she knows 

more than the content of the subject thus, becoming rebellious towards the content as wells as the 

process of learning. Another potent contributor to academic rebelliousness in the present study was 

academic procrastination. This is in accordance with what Ferrari (2001) found when he reported that 

chronic procrastinators perform more poorly academically and rationalize their postponement of 

action in their nature of doing things or carrying out a given assignment. Furthermore, Steel (2007) 

revealed that at larger levels of analysis, procrastination can be linked to several organizational and 

societal issues. Since rebellion can be viewed as a reaction, whatever one does, therefore will depend 

on who or what you are rebelling against. For instance, if you do not like your teacher or the subject, 

you may strike back or get even by turning in your assignments late or procrastinating indefinitely. 

Implication for counseling 

Findings from this study have great implications for counseling. This is because 

procrastination is not just a simple habit. It involves complex behaviors among which are the 

emotions as well as the thoughts and actions of individuals. Counselors can assist in training the 

students on how best to utilize their time. This will enable them plan properly and be able to put 

important things first. In order words, ordering things and events properly can assist in boosting their 

abilities and consequently, lower their postponement of the very important academic assignments. 

Again, overconfidence can be addressed in a number of ways. Overconfidence may be at least partially 

responsible for the relatively high incidence of failures among students, since overconfident 

individuals are likely to overestimate their ability to make correct decisions. If overconfident 

individuals perceive less risk in their endeavors, then this cognitive bias might subsequently lead to 

increased tendency for individuals to show academic rebelliousness, whereas a less overconfident 

individual may not form this behavior. So helping the students understand how to develop a balance 

in their self-belief and this irrational behavior may assist in reducing academic rebelliousness in them. 

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http://studiemetro.au.dk/fileadmin/www.studiemetro.au.dk/Procrastination_2.pdf 

Author Notes 

Aderanti, Ruth Adunola (Ph.D) 

Williams, Taiwo Motolani (Ph.D) 

Oyinloye, Comfort Adebola (Ph.D) 

Uwanna, Ngozi Caroline (MPP) 

Department of Educational Foundations 

Babcock University, Ogun State, Nigeria

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