The Influence Of Adverse Childhood Experiences On Adolescent Academic Self-handicapping: The Mediating Role Of Self-Esteem And The Moderating Role Of Gender

Secondary school is a critical period for life development,and it is also a period when students adopt self-handicapping strategies for academic self-handicapping.Academic self-handicapping specifically refers to any behavior and choice that can externalize the cause of failure in order to avoid possible negative academic evaluation in a learning situation.Individuals with a high level of academic self-handicapping often emphasize physical,emotional,environmental and other adverse factors hindering their performance in front of others,and even adopt negative learning behaviors(such as truancy,procrastination,deliberately not writing homework,etc.),when academic performance declines,the results can be attributed to these adverse factors and behaviors,rather than their own inadequacy.Studies have found that individuals using academic self-handicapping strategies can only obtain short-term self-worth gains,but over time,self-handicapping learning strategies will reduce academic performance,and lead to a decrease in the level of intrinsic learning motivation,and eventually fall into a vicious circle,increased academic burnout,and serious consequences of poor academic performance or even dropping out of school.Based on previous studies,the main influencing factors of academic self-hindrance are: environmental factors(parenting style,family environment,teachers’ feedback on students’ learning,etc.)and individual differences(such as personality traits,self-esteem,coping style,etc.),but few people have explored the impact of early family environment factors such as adverse childhood experiences on academic self-handicapping.The selfdetermination theory believes that on the basis of fully understanding their own psychological needs and external environmental information,individuals will choose their own behaviors independently,and the failure to meet the basic needs of individuals(relationship,autonomy,competence)will cause individuals to produce internal and external behavior problems.People who experience childhood misfortune suffer from various neglect and abuse in the early days,and their basic relationship needs cannot be met,and they are likely to have the common externalized behavior problem of academic self-handicapping.Therefore,this study constructs a moderated mediating model to explore the influence of adverse childhood experiences on academic self-handicapping,and to study the mechanisms of self-esteem and gender factors.In this paper,the method of cluster random sampling was used to survey 703 high school students in two middle schools in a central province by using the Adverse childhood experiences Questionnaire,Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale and Academic Self-Impairment Scale.The results show that:(1)adverse childhood experiences has a significant positive predictive effect on adolescent academic self-handicapping;(2)self-esteem plays a mediating role between adverse childhood experiences and academic self-handicapping;(3)the first half of the mediating path of "adverse childhood experiences→ self-esteem→ academic self-handicapping" is regulated by gender.Specifically,the negative predictive effect of adverse childhood experiences on self-esteem was significant in women but not in men.The results explain the influence and mechanism of adverse childhood experiences on adolescent academic self-handicapping,and provide a certain reference for the prevention and intervention of adolescent academic self-handicapping.