Self-handicapping and self-esteem profiles and their relation to achievement goals

Abstract: The present work seeks to deepen the knowledge of academic self-handicapping. The two objectives of this study were (a) to identify possible profiles of students from the combination of self-handicapping (behavioral and claimed) and self-esteem and (b) to analyze the differences among these profiles in terms of their achievement goals (learning, achievement-approach, achievement-avoidance and work-avoidance). Participants in this study included 1028 university students. To obtain the profiles, a Latent Profile Analysis was conducted. The differences among profiles in the achievement goals were analyzed by means of a MANCOVA, using gender and the course as covariables. Five student profiles were obtained: LSE/HSH (low self-esteem and high self-handicapping), LSE/HCSH (low self-esteem and high claimed self-handicapping), LSE/HBSH (low self-esteem and high behavioral self-handicapping), MSE/MSH (moderate self-esteem and moderate self-handicapping), and MSE/LSH (moderate self-esteem and low self-handicapping). These profiles differed significantly from one another in terms of their achievement goals. The results of this work contribute to the understanding of the motivational characteristics of self-handicapping students. Given how dysfunctional these strategies are, some psychoeducational guidelines aimed at preventing self-handicapping in the academic context are outlined.