examining the mediating role of test anxiety in the relationship between procrastination and self-handicapping of students

Background: procrastination is a common phenomenon affecting many aspects of personal and academic life, especially among students.objectives: this research aims to examine the mediating role of test anxiety in the relationship between procrastination and self-handicapping of students in a structural equation modeling approach.methods: the present research was a cross-sectional study of descriptive-correlational type, performed in 2022 on 200 students. the census method was used for sample selection because of the limited sample size. three standard questionnaires were used: solomon and rothblum academic procrastination, sarason anxiety scale, and johns and rodwelt self-handicapping scale. structural equation modeling was used through amos 22 with a significance level of 0.05 for data analysis.results: the findings indicated that procrastination had a positive and significant effect on test anxiety (β = 0.46, p < 0.001) and self-handicapping (β = 0.32, p < 0.001). also, the impact of text anxiety on self-handicapping (β = 0.49, p < 0.001) was positive and significant. there was also an indirect effect of procrastination on the self-handicapping of students through text anxiety (0.22), which was obtained as positive and significant at 0.01 levels via the bootstrap method.conclusion: procrastination causes increased self-handicapping of students and test anxiety, which promotes further self-handicapping.