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This dissertation aimed to investigate parenting styles, self-esteem, and academic procrastination in an adult UK sample. Specifically, authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive parenting styles were studied. Authoritarian parenting is characterised by high levels of restrictions and discipline, and low warmth. Authoritative parenting is characterised by a medium-to-high amount of rules and restrictions, but high warmth. Permissive parenting is characterised by low rules and restrictions, and high warmth. Previous research suggests that the parenting styles used by one’s mother and father may influence one’s academic procrastination. Self-esteem is also believed to impact academic procrastination, and previous studies have found that individuals with low self-esteem are more likely to procrastinate. In the present study, it was hypothesised that self-esteem would be partially responsible for the relationship between parenting styles and academic procrastination. Gender differences were also investigated. 205 participants were included using online surveys. An independent samples t-test suggested that gender differences were only significant in paternal authoritative parenting. Men were significantly more likely to report authoritative fathers. Paternal authoritativeness was the only parenting style that negatively predicted academic procrastination in a regression model. Paternal authoritativeness was also the only parenting style that was significantly associated with self-esteem, indicating that the significant gender difference in paternal authoritativeness was potentially important. Because paternal authoritativeness was the only parenting style that was significantly predictive of both self-esteem and academic procrastination when other parenting styles were controlled for, it was the only parenting style included in the mediation model. The mediation model indicated that self-esteem does not significantly explain the relationship between parenting style and academic procrastination. Despite the gender differences in paternal authoritativeness, gender did not add any explanatory power to the mediation model. These findings differ from those of Pychyl et al. (2002) who found gender differences in this relationship. The different findings in the present study may be explained by the age of participants. The present study used adult (ages 18 to 49) participants, while Pychyl et al. (2002) used adolescent (ages 13 to 15) participants. Gender differences in self-esteem tend to lessen over time from adolescence to adulthood (Kling et al., 1999), which might explain why findings were different in an adult sample. Additionally, paternal permissive, maternal authoritarian, and maternal permissive parenting styles were positively and significantly associated with academic procrastination when other parenting styles were controlled for, in line with previous research (Batool et al., 2020; Zakeri et al., 2013). Future research should explore the potential roles of self-efficacy, self-regulation, and perfectionism in explaining the relationship between parenting styles and academic procrastination.

The findings of this study have real-world implications for interventions, parents, and future research. Much of the research on academic procrastination has focused on intrapersonal, rather than interpersonal factors (McCloskey, 2012). This study contributed to knowledge on the interpersonal impact of parenting styles on academic procrastination. Knowledge around the impacts of different parenting styles on factors like academic procrastination and self-esteem are important in informing parents and empowering them to make appropriate decisions that will benefit their children. The present study contributed to knowledge around academic procrastination by indicating that self-esteem is not the mechanism by which parenting influences academic procrastination in adult higher education students. This is relevant for informing academic procrastination interventions, which are currently under-researched, potentially due to the wide variety of correlates of academic procrastination (Zacks & Hen, 69 2018). The present study helped to clarify the relationship between two correlates of academic procrastination, which can inform future research on academic procrastination interventions.