Abstract
The present research aimed to uncover individual differences that can be used to predict, at the start of a course, performance difficulties in female students of an understudied population who are at the beginning of their academic journey. Measures of active and passive procrastination and general self‐efficacy were collected at the start of the semester from students enrolled in one of two courses representative of the general education curriculum at a university in the Middle East. Grades on the first homework assignment and test in each course were used as indices of students' early performance. Measures of procrastination and self‐efficacy failed to adequately predict either early performance or attendance rates. Yet, attendance predicted a portion of the variance in assignment performance. This study suggests that class presence, rather than dispositional individual differences, can shape the early academic success of an understudied student population.
Procrastination and self‐efficacy failed to adequately predict either early performance or attendance rates. Instead, attendance predicted early performance.
Highlights
Individual differences in self‐efficacy and procrastination were ineffective as early indicators of course difficulties.
The higher the self‐efficacy of students, the less likely they were to fail to meet deadlines (a feature of passive procrastination).
Attendance, rather than dispositional differences, accounted for initial academic success in the selected course.