Career decisional procrastination can hinder effective career decision-making (Levin & Lipshits-Braziler, 2022). Rather than a unitary tendency, individuals procrastinate for different reasons. To capture this, Kashkoush et al. (2025) developed the Career Decisional Procrastination Questionnaire (CDPQ), which identifies five reasons: short-term rewards (preference for immediate mood benefits from enjoyable activities), self-worth protection (fear that a wrong career decision will undermine one's self-worth), lack of psychological resources (insufficient emotional resources required for deciding), pressure thriving (belief that deciding under pressure leads to better decisions), and time management (planned delay of decision-making). This study tested the predictive validity of the CDPQ in relation to career decision-making outcomes, including career decisional difficulty and distress (Levin & Lipshits-Braziler, 2022), career decision status (Gati et al., 2003), and academic major satisfaction (Nauta, 2007).
At Time 1, 462 pre-academic preparatory students in Israel (50% woman) participated at the beginning of the year. SEM analysis showed that lack of psychological resources (β = -.29) and time management (β = -.28) negatively predicted career decision status (R² = .25). In addition, lack of psychological resources (β = .39) and self-worth protection (β = .30) positively predicted decisional difficulty and distress (R² = .31). At Time 2, 145 participants (51% woman) completed the questionnaire again at the end of the academic year. SEM analysis showed that lack of psychological resources continued to negatively predict career decision status (β = -.24, R² = .13), while short-term rewards negatively predicted academic major satisfaction (β = -.25, R² = .08).
The findings demonstrate that distinct reasons for career decisional procrastination are differentially associated with career decision-making outcomes, both concurrently and longitudinally. Identifying these reasons can inform targeted interventions to support individuals in managing procrastination and making better career decisions.