A Study of Relationship between Maladaptive Daydreaming, Impulsivity and Procrastination Among Students and Working Professionals

Abstract

Maladaptive daydreaming (MD) is a mental concept defined by concerning and full-scale daydreaming that disturbs daily activities. Previous studies have linked MD to increased emotional distress levels and lack of self- regulation, but its evidence-based relationship with impulsivity and work-related procrastination has not been clearly investigated. In the study under consideration, 208 Indian population who were either student participants (n= 108) or working professional (n= 100) completed standardized measures, i.e. the Maladaptive Daydreaming Scale (MDS-16), the Short UPPS-P Impulsive Behaviour Scale, and the Pure-Procrastination Scale (PPS). Analytic methods were Pearson product-moment correlations to examine interrelations among variables and independent t-tests to examine group differences. Results showed statistically significant positive correlation between MD and procrastination in both the student and professional groups but MD did not show statistically significant relationship with measures of impulsivity. There was a large difference of procrastination in groups but not MD or impulsivity. These findings suggest that MD is and avoidance- based cognitive mechanism which promotes procrastination, as opposed to being the manifestation of generalised impulsive behaviour.