The moderating effects of information overload and academic procrastination on the information avoidance behavior among Filipino undergraduate thesis writers

Abstract

Information avoidance is a behavior that could either prevent or delay consumption of information. While information avoidance has been documented in various fields of interest, its overall dynamics in the context of library and information science remains a research blankspot. The overall intent of this paper is to develop a model that examines the moderating effect of information overload and academic procrastination on the information avoidance behavior among Filipino undergraduate thesis writers. Capitalizing on Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) design, a total of 215 Filipino undergraduate thesis writers participated in the study. A multi-aspect questionnaire was used to measure the following variables: information overload, academic procrastination and information avoidance. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. Results show that when students have a positive attitude towards reading, the more likely they are to employ better reading strategies and the less likely they are to exhibit information avoidance. On the other hand, the more reading strategies are used, the lower is information avoidance. Additionally, the tendency to procrastinate has less effect on the relationship between reading strategies and information avoidance and the tendency to procrastinate and acquire excessive information has less effect on the relationship between reading attitudes and information avoidance. Implications for university settings are also discussed in this paper.