ABSTRACT
Procrastination trait describes irrational delays of scheduled tasks despite clear awareness of the adverse consequences of doing so. Although procrastination is well-known to be linked to psychiatric or pathological processes, the criterion for “psychopathological procrastination” distinguishing from the procrastination trait is understudied. This is a 5-year longitudinal observational study. Participants (N = 464) completed measures of trait procrastination in 2018, with a follow-up conducted in 2023 (N = 267) collecting subclinical symptomatology. A constrained multivariate direct gradient model (cmDGM) was employed to prospectively predict subclinical psychiatric symptomatology formulated by the DSM-5 framework. The two-stage psychopathological connectome model was then constructed to constitute a “diagnostic criterion” reflecting “psychopathological procrastination.” Procrastination prospectively predicted subclinical psychopathological symptoms and unhealthy lifestyles. Subclinical bridge hubs of “failure to self-regulate delays,” “failure to control adverse consequences,” “useless to self-change,” “out-of-control irruptions,” “poor sleep quality,” and “negative emotional reactions” were identified in the two-stage psychopathological network. These hubs constituted the 9-item pathological procrastination diagnostic criterion (3PDC) with good diagnostic performance (AUC = 0.82, p < 0.01). The present study revealed the predictive role of procrastination for subclinical psychiatric symptomatology and further established the subclinical 3PDC to lay the foundation for the “diagnostics of psychopathological procrastinators.”