Data for：How_Procrastination_and_Circadian_Rhythms_Mediate

This study focuses on the prevalent academic procrastination tendency and evening chronotype preference among art majors, challenging the traditional educational perception that categorizes such behaviors simply as negative factors. It points out that learning tasks for art majors are characterized by high openness, unstructuredness and creativity orientation, which makes the traditional evaluation framework applicable to regular majors insufficient to adapt to the learning laws of this group. Based on a dual analytical framework of active and passive procrastination, this study confirms that active procrastination plays a significant partial mediating role between metacreativity and creativity among music majors, serving as a strategic pathway for art majors to transform metacreativity into actual creative output. Furthermore, the study finds that evening circadian rhythm can significantly buffer the negative impact of passive procrastination on the metacreativity-creativity relationship—in the group with evening chronotype, the adverse effects of passive procrastination can be effectively offset by the characteristics of their physiological rhythms, which further breaks the one-sided negative perception of passive procrastination in traditional education. This research not only deepens the domain-specific study on the heterogeneity of procrastination behavior, clarifies the essential differences and distinct effects of active procrastination as a creative strategy and passive procrastination as a failure of self-regulation, but also provides a brand-new perspective for music education and the cultivation of various art talents. It is suggested that educators adopt personalized and adaptive educational strategies to guide students to rationally apply active procrastination and realize the efficient development of creativity.