The role of the perceptions of learning environment in academic self-handicapping considering the mediating role of academic procrastination and academic optimism

The present study aims at analyzing the importance of the academic environment in academic self-handicapping with a focused emphasis on the mediating role of academic procrastination and optimism. . The research method is descriptive (correlating – structure study) and the statistical population includes all the students of the Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Hakim Sabzevari University, Khorasan, Iran. Out of 1300 students in 2017, 300 were selected using available sampling method.. To collect the data, Dundee questionnaires of, the perceptions of learning environment measurement (Rauf et al., 1997), a questionnaire on educational self-handicapping (Jones & Rudwalt, 1982), one on educational procrastination (savari, 2011), and another on educational optimism (Schönen Moran et al., 2013) were distribiuted. The data are analyzed using statistical software SPSS 22 and Amos, as well as the structural equation model. The results revealed that the perceptions of the learning environment have a significant negative effect on the academic self-handicapping (-0/15) and academic procrastination (-0/25); and a significant positive effect on the academic optimism (0/40) . Moreover, the academic procrastination had a significant positive effect on academic self-handicapping (0/20). And finally, the perceptions of the learning environment indirectly had a significant negative effect on the academic self-handicapping through academic optimism and academic procrastination ( -0/07). Besides, the research model acceptably fits the data all in all(0/01). The results emphasize the importance of positive perceptions of the learning environment, academic optimism, and academic non-procrastination in reducing the amount of students’ tendency towards academic self-handicapping.