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 effort subscale (α and composite reliability estimates ranged from 0.36 to 0.49). Confirmatory factor analyses revealed that the SHS had an unstable factor structure as the majority of fit indices were well below the 0.90 level of acceptability. These findings 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-specific measure of academic self-handicapping.