Factors Affect Self-Handicapping Of Individual Sport Athletes

Self-handicapping is a strategy of self-protection when individuals face an evaluation threat.Self-handicapping can be divided into two main categories;they are behavioral self-handicapping and claimed self-handicapping.Other-enhancement is a specific strategy of self-handicapping.Self-handicapping strategies may be used for the purposes of self-worth protection and impression management.Attribution, self-esteem,goal orientation,group cohesion,task quality,and gender are related with self-handicapping.Study 1 investigated 187 athletes from different sports and levels. The results suggested that trait self-handicapping was negatively related to self-esteem(r=-.450,p＜.010),and athletes with low self-esteem got high scores in trait self-handicapping.Goal orientation had significant main effect(F=3.104,p=.028).High-task/low-ego oriented athletes had lower trait self-handicapping than athletes adopted other orientation mode.Female athletes had lower trait self-handicapping than male athletes(F=5.875,p=.016) when self-esteem was controlled as a covariate.But sport level had no effect on trait self-handicapping of athletes(F=.200,p=.819) at the same condition.Study 2 recruited 61 college athletes to examine the effects of trait self-handicapping and importance of situation on self-reported self-handicapping.The results indicated that trait self-handicapping had significant effect on self-reported self-handicapping(F=19.381, p=.000).The interaction of the two factors could not be ignored although it didn't meet the 0.05 significant level(F=3.184,p=.076).Athletes with high trait self-handicapping used more self-reported self-handicapping strategies in important sport situation while athletes with low trait self-handicapping used less self-reported self-handicapping strategies whether it was in important sport situation or not.Reliability and validity of the scales and questionnaires were both acceptable. In the end of the article,some suggestions are provided for coaches and sport psychologists.The third variable(for instance,physical self-esteem) should be considered in future studies.The relationship between self-handicapping of athletes and competition performance is valuable to be researched.