Parental emotional neglect and academic procrastination: the mediating role of future self-continuity and ego depletion

The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of parental emotional neglect on the academic procrastination of late adolescents and further analyze the mediating role of future self-continuity and ego depletion. This study included 609 college students, 344 males and 265 females, ranging in age from 17 to 21 years (M = 18.39, SD = 0.82), who responded to four questionnaires measuring parental emotional neglect, academic procrastination, future self-continuity, and ego depletion, respectively. The results showed that future self-continuity and ego depletion mediated the association between parental emotional neglect and late adolescents’ academic procrastination in a serial pattern. Perceived higher levels of parental emotional neglect correlated with lower future self-continuity and higher ego depletion in these late adolescents, leading to higher levels of academic procrastination.