SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1624094
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Intersection of Psychology, Healthy Behaviors, and its OutcomesView all 128 articles
The association between procrastination and negative emotions in healthy individuals: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Provisionally accepted
- 1Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai, Zhuhai, China
- 2Beijing Normal University, Zhu hai, China
- 3Ningxia University, Ning xia, China
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The widespread recognition of the link between procrastination and negative emotions is accompanied by a need for greater clarity regarding the underlying mechanisms of this connection. This study aims to systematically review and meta-analyze the association between procrastination and negative emotions, specifically focusing on depression, anxiety, and stress. Through comprehensive searches across five databases, we have included a total of 88 studies, encompassing 63,323 participants across 17 countries. Utilizing Stata 18.0, we conducted separate meta-analyses for each of the three negative emotions. The results indicate a moderate positive correlation between procrastination and negative emotions, with a combined effect size of r=0.342. Subgroup analyses reveal variations in the strength of this association across different types of procrastination. Furthermore, the results of the publication bias test indicate no significant bias. By unveiling the close connection between procrastination and negative emotions, and preliminarily exploring the bidirectional relationship between procrastination and negative emotions based on the included longitudinal studies, this study has reinforced the theoretical foundation of this field. Policymakers should consider the association with procrastination behaviors when aiming to improve people's mental health and well-being.
Keywords: procrastination, Negative emotions, Depression, Anxiety, stress, Systematic review
Received: 07 May 2025; Accepted: 08 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Nie, wang, Zhou, wang, Liu and gao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Cong Liu, congliu@bnu.edu.cn
jinchao gao, gjchbnuz@163.com
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