Evaluation is so paramount in students' lives that researchers have found that, for many students, one's self-worth is intricately tied to one's performance. Self-handicapping is a strategy that may be used to maintain one's self-worth. This anticipatory tactic typically involves the use of procrastination; by procrastinating, one clouds the causal factors involved in performance, such that in the event of poor performance, one may attribute the low grade to lack of effort rather than to low ability. Considering the negative impact of this strategy on students' learning and performance, identifying factors that trigger students' self-handicapping behaviors is imperative. Demographic, motivations, and contextual factors were studied for 529 college students at 3 different time points in a semester. Motivational and classroom context variables were stronger predictors of students' self-handicapping than were demographic variables. These results are discussed in terms of implications for instruction and suggestions for interventions. (Contains 4 tables and 25 references.) (Author/SLD)