Academic procrastination, a common phenomenon among college students, is particularly prominent in the field of higher vocational education in China and has attracted much attention in the field of educational research because of its large influence on student academic achievements. In recent years, an increasing number of studies have held that academic procrastination results from student self-regulation failure, and there is an important internal relationship between self-regulation failure and relative deprivation. To examine the relationship mechanism between relative deprivation and academic procrastination in higher vocational college students, this study investigated 15,998 higher vocational college students in Chongqing, Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan by using the "Relative Deprivation Questionnaire," "Adolescent Academic Emotion Questionnaire," "Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale" ("CD-RISC") and "Middle School Student Academic Procrastination Scale." The results show the following. (a) Relative deprivation had a significant negative predictive effect on academic procrastination. (b) Negative academic emotions mediated the relationship between relative deprivation and academic procrastination. (c) Resilience moderated the relationship between negative academic emotions and academic procrastination.