Hamilton Institute, Maynooth University, Maynooth, Ireland.
Centre for Public Health, Queens University, Belfast, Ireland.
Aging Ment Health. 2024 Sep;28(9):1270-1277. doi: 10.1080/13607863.2024.2345781. Epub 2024 May 2.
Procrastination is an almost universal behaviour and yet little research to date has focused on procrastination among older adults. The purpose of this study was to explore the potential association between age and procrastination, and the potential mediating roles of depressive symptomatology and loneliness.
Structural equation modelling was applied to data from 1309 participants (aged 29-92) from two waves United States Health and Retirement Study (2016-2020). Within the model, sex, education, marital status, and job status were added as covariates.
There was no statistically significant direct effect between age and procrastination (β = 0.06, = 0.106). However, an indirect effect was present depressive symptomatology (β = -0.40, < 0.001). No mediating effect of loneliness was observed (β = - 0.01, = 0.371). Subsequent analysis revealed that the symptoms, fatigue, loneliness, and lack of motivation significantly predicted procrastination.
While age was not directly associated with procrastination, increasing age was associated with a decreased likelihood of depressive symptomatology, which was in turn associated with an increased likelihood of procrastination. Such findings indicates that age demonstrates no association with procrastination because of the suppressing effect of depressive symptomatology.
拖延是一种几乎普遍存在的行为，但迄今为止，很少有研究关注老年人的拖延问题。本研究旨在探讨年龄与拖延之间的潜在关联，以及抑郁症状和孤独感的潜在中介作用。
采用结构方程模型对来自美国健康与退休研究（2016-2020 年）的两个波次的 1309 名参与者（年龄 29-92 岁）的数据进行分析。在模型中，性别、教育程度、婚姻状况和工作状况被添加为协变量。
年龄与拖延之间不存在统计学上显著的直接效应（β=0.06， =0.106）。然而，抑郁症状存在间接效应（β=-0.40， <0.001）。孤独感没有中介作用（β=-0.01， =0.371）。随后的分析表明，症状、疲劳、孤独感和缺乏动力显著预测了拖延。
虽然年龄与拖延之间没有直接关联，但随着年龄的增长，抑郁症状的可能性降低，而抑郁症状又与拖延的可能性增加有关。这些发现表明，由于抑郁症状的抑制作用，年龄与拖延之间没有关联。
