The Roles of Moral Disengagement and Learned Helplessness Towards International Postgraduate Students’ Academic Procrastination

OBJECTIVE: Supervisors play an important role in international postgraduate students’ academic performance, their insufficient guidance and supervision are the main antecedents for international postgraduate students’ academic procrastination. Meanwhile, international postgraduate students’ disengagement tendency and learned helplessness in dealing with supervisor’s moral disengagement will significantly affect their academic choices and outcomes. METHODS: Based on self-determination theory, this research distributed 350 questionnaires through two-stage time-lagged method and 266 valid questionnaires were recovered. Hierarchical regression analysis examined the direct effect of supervisor’ moral disengagement on international postgraduate students’ academic procrastination, as well as the moderating effect of international postgraduate students’ moral disengagement and learned helplessness. RESULTS: The results indicated that 1) supervisor’s moral disengagement significantly predicts international postgraduate students’ academic procrastination, 2) international postgraduate students’ moral disengagement and learned helplessness positively moderate the above relation, and 3) international postgraduate students’ learned helplessness positively moderates the moderating effect of international postgraduate students’ moral disengagement. CONCLUSION: This study revealed the antecedents and conditions of international postgraduate students’ academic procrastination, which enriched the theoretical connotation and practical application of self-determination theory in the field of international postgraduate students’ education.