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Predictors of Middle School Students' Use of Self-Handicapping Strategies

Recently, attention has been focused on the strategies children use in school to portray themselves as able to others. By procrastinating, allowing others to keep them from studying, deliberately not trying, and using other "self-handicapping" strategies, students can convey that those circumstances, rather than lack of ability, are the reasons for subsequent poor performance. Survey data from 256 eighth-grade students indicated that boys used those strategies more than did girls, and low achievers more than did high achievers. In separate regressions, feeling self-conscious in school low self-worth& being oriented to extrinsic and adult approval achievement goals, perceiving that the school emphasized performance goals, and associating with friends with a negative orientation toward academics predicted the use of those strategies. When all significant predictors were entered into one regression analysis, low achievement, being oriented to extrinsic goals, and associating with friends with a negative orientation toward academics remained significant.