Ferradás, María del MarFreire, CarlosNúñez, José CarlosRegueiro, Bibiana2019-08-092019-08-092019-06-23Ferradás, M.M.; Freire, C.; Núñez, J.C.; Regueiro, B. Associations between Profiles of Self-Esteem and Achievement Goals and the Protection of Self-Worth in University Students. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16, 2218.http://hdl.handle.net/2183/23671[Abstract] The high demands of academia and the fear of failure lead some university students to prioritize defending their personal worth through the use of complex strategies such as self-handicapping or defensive pessimism. Adopting a person-centered approach, this study established two objectives: First, to analyze the conformation of di erent motivational profiles based on the combination of self-esteem and achievement goals (learning, performance approach, and performance avoidance); and second, to determine if the identified profiles di er from one another in the use of self-handicapping and defensive pessimism. A total of 1028 university students participated in the research. Four motivational profiles were obtained: (a) High self-esteem, low learning goals, high performance approach goals, and high performance avoidance goals; (b) high self-esteem, high learning goals, low performance approach goals, and low performance avoidance goals; (c) low self-esteem, low learning goals, high performance approach goals, and high performance avoidance goals; and (d) low self-esteem, high learning goals, high performance approach goals, and medium performance avoidance goals. Profiles (c) and (d) were significantly related to self-handicapping and defensive pessimism, respectively. These results suggest that students with low self-esteem are more vulnerable to self-protection strategies. Additionally, under self-handicapping and defensive pessimism, the achievement goals are slightly di erent.engAtribución 4.0 Españahttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/es/Self-handicappingDefensive pessimismSelf-esteemAchievement goalsMotivational profilesjournal articleopen accesshttps://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16122218