Is the self-handicapping scale reliable in non-academic achievement domains?

The present study investigated whether the short version of the Self-Handicapping Scale (SHS; Rhodewalt, 1990) is a reliable measure of self-handicapping outside of academic settings. Across 3 samples of athletes, analyses indicated that SHS items were not very meaningful to respondents and the subscales lacked internal consistency, particularly the e€ort subscale (a and composite reliability estimates ranged from 0.36 to 0.49). Con®rmatory factor analyses revealed that the SHS had an unstable factor structure as the majority of ®t indices were well below the 0.90 level of acceptability. These ®ndings suggest that the SHS is not a reliable instrument for identifying trait self-handicappers in sport achievement settings. Rather, the SHS may be a domain-speci®c measure of academic selfhandicapping. # 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.