Causal modeling of relationship between fear of negative evaluation, self-esteem instability and positive perfectionism with Students' academic self-handicapping

The aim of this study was to explain the causal relationship between fear of negative evaluation, self-esteem instability and positive perfectionism and academic self-handicapping. This was a correlational study. For this purpose, 331 students of Andimeshk Islamic Azad University were selected by stratified random sampling method. The participants completed the Self-Handicapping Scale (Jones & Rvdvlt, 1982), Positive Perfectionism Questionnaire (Terry-Short et al, 1995), brief form of the Fear of Negative Evaluation (Leary, 1989) and Self-Esteem Instability (Howard, 2017). The model was evaluated using path analysis and with the help of Amos software. The results indicated that the proposed model had acceptable fit with regard to the indices obtained. In this model, the fear of negative evaluation, self-esteem instability and positive perfectionism have a significant direct effect on academic self-handicapping. In addition, the indirect effect of fear of negative evaluation and self-esteem instability on academic self-handicapping through the positive perfectionism was also significant (p < 0.05). Based on the above results, encouraging and orienting the goal of positive perfectionism in students can reduce the incidence of academic procrastination in them.