Academic Self-Control and Academic Dishonesty: A Psychological Approach for Testing Gottfredson and Hirsch\u27s General Theory of Crime

This study examined the viability of Gottfredson and Hirschi\u27s General Theory of Crime using academic dishonesty as a measurement of deviant behavior. Their theory proposes that low self-control is a primary characteristic of those who are deviant and is mediated by parental supervision and monitoring. Participants (N = 78) were recruited from university classes and common areas on campus. Using hierarchical multiple regression and correlation analyses, three hypotheses were tested. The first hypothesis was concerned with whether parental academic supervision mediated the relationship between academic self-control and academic dishonesty. Though there was a significant negative relationship between academic self-control and academic dishonesty, parental academic supervision had no significant correlation with any variable of interest. For the second hypothesis, there was shown to be a positive moderate correlation between academic self-control and general self-control. For the third hypothesis there was shown to be a moderate positive correlation between academic dishonesty and general deviance. These results were discussed in the context of the validity of the theory and its comparison with psychological literature findings. Implications for further research are also discussed