Self-control, perceived opportunity, and attitudes as predictors of academic dishonesty

ABSTRACT. Academic dishonesty is a persistent and pervasive problem on college cam-puses. Researchers have suggested a variety of factors that influence academic dishonesty. The present study is an examination of the roles of self-control, attitude toward academic dishonesty, and perceived opportunity in predicting academic dishonesty. The dataset con-sisted of 853 survey responses from university students across the United States. The results showed that attitude toward academic dishonesty mediated the relationship between self-control and academic dishonesty and also between perceived opportunity and academic dishonesty. Implications of these findings are briefly discussed. Key words: academic dishonesty, attitudes, cheating, general theory of crime ACADEMIC DISHONESTY is a persistent and pervasive problem on college campuses in the United States. Over 60 years ago, Drake (1941) reported that 23 % of undergraduate students had engaged in some form of academic dis-honesty or cheating. Although there is some debate as to whether the problem has grown since then (for a review see Brown & Emmett, 2001), recent esti-mates of the incidence of cheating on college campuses suggest that the majority of all students cheat at some point in their college careers (Davis