This study examined the relationships between achievement goals (task, performance-approach, performance-avoid) and self-handicapping in the area of secondary school physical education. The sample consisted of 273 ninth grade students (125 male, 148 female). Regression analysis revealed that a task goal and a performance-approach goal were negatively related to self-handicapping, whereas a performance-avoidance goal related positively to self-handicapping. Altogether, 14% of the variance in self-handicapping was explained by the three achievement goals. Analyses of covariance further revealed that a task goal influenced the way performance-approach and performance-avoidance goal related to self-handicapping. Specifically, to some extent a high task goal seems to moderate the aversive effects on self-handicapping of holding either a performance-approach goal or a performance-avoidance goal. Taken together, analyses indicate that, a performance-avoidance goal more strongly deserve being labeled the motivationally “bad guy” in terms of generating self-handicapping. In terms of self-handicapping a performance-approach goal, in contrast, seems more readily characterized as a motivationally double-edged sword.
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