This study aimed to verify the sequential mediating effect of achievement goal type and grit in the relationship between classroom goal structure and academic procrastination behavior perceived by elementary school students. To this end, the data was collected from 521 fourth- to sixth-grade students (268 male students) in three elementary schools located in D Metropolitan City were verified through preliminary basic analysis, structural equation model analysis, and bootstrapping procedures.
As a result of the study, the mastery goal structure did not directly predict academic procrastination behavior, but it made significant predictions through the sequential mediation of mastery goal and grit, which are non-cognitive characteristics. In other words, if the teacher provides a classroom environment with a mastery goal structure that emphasizes the acquisition of new knowledge and emphasizes the process rather than the result, it can contribute to students having accessible achievement goals such as mastery goals. Through this, the strengthened motivation can influence the choice of academic behavior that a student is interested in and increase their desire to continue to study, thereby preventing academic procrastination. These results provide empirical evidence that academic procrastination, which is a non-adaptive academic behavior, is contextual and dynamic, and suggests educational implications for the role of teachers acting on this, as well as the importance of various non-cognitive characteristics and the need to explore structural relationships. In addition, it suggests that teachers' efforts to apply various teaching methods in consideration of the non-cognitive characteristics of learners based on a deep understanding of individual differences are necessary to maximize the positive effects of the classroom environment.