Anticipating academic failure, some students may harm their chances of success (e.g., engaging in destructive behaviors like drug abuse), so that potential failure can be attributed to these handicaps rather than to personal characteristics like low intelligence

Schwinger, M., Trautner, M., Pütz, N., Fabianek, S., Lemmer, G., Lauermann, F., & Wirthwein, L. (2021). Why do students use strategies that hurt their chances of academic success? A meta-analysis of antecedents of academic self-handicapping. Journal of Educational Psychology, Oct 2021. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000706

Abstract: Self-handicapping is a maladaptive strategy that students employ to protect their self-image when they fear or anticipate academic failure. Instead of increasing their effort, students may harm their chances of success by procrastinating, strategically withdrawing effort, or engaging in destructive behaviors like drug abuse, so that potential failure can be attributed to these handicaps rather than to stable personal characteristics (e.g., low intelligence). A large body of research has focused on potential antecedents of students’ self-handicapping, but the literature is fragmented and the evidence is often mixed. Thus, we know little about which factors have the highest potential to trigger habitual self-handicapping and to explain interindividual differences in such behaviors. This meta-analysis is the first to synthesize available evidence across a broad range of potential antecedents of academic self-handicapping reported in 159 studies and 194 independent samples (N = 81,630). The strongest associations with habitual self-handicapping were found for the personality traits conscientiousness (r = −.40) and neuroticism (r = .38) as well as stable trait-like factors such as general self-esteem (r = −.34) and fear of failure (r = .39). Rather malleable factors, such as personal achievement goals (rs = −.19 to .27), showed comparatively smaller effects. Self-handicapping assessment (scale and reliability) significantly moderated most of the investigated associations, thereby implying higher internal validities for some measures compared with others. The reported findings provide important insights into mechanisms of and possible starting points for interventions against self-handicapping in the academic domain.