Prevalence and Correlates of Academic Dishonesty: Towards a Sustainable University

• Main Authors: Dámaris Cuadrado, Jesús F. Salgado, Silvia Moscoso
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-10-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: academic sustainability; academic dishonesty; personality; big five; general mental ability; academic performance
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/21/6062

Academic dishonesty (AD) is a problem that affects all higher education institutions. It hurts their reputation, undermines integrity programs, and sidelines sustainability efforts. To understand its negative impact, the empirical study of AD is a critical issue. Up to now, the majority of research on AD has taken place in the North American context. The current research analyzes the prevalence of AD in a non-American university and, focusing on individual differences, examines some of its causes and consequences. The results prove that: (1) AD is a problem that occurs frequently among students; (2) three dimensions of the big five personality model correlate with AD. These are conscientiousness (&#961; = &#8722;0.49, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.01), extraversion (&#961; = 0.39, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.01), and agreeableness (&#961; = &#8722;0.14, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.01); (3) AD is associated to students&#8217; GPA (Grade Point Average) (&#961; = &#8722;0.34, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.01) and contextual performance (&#961; = &#8722;0.50, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.01); (4) personality accounts for 30% of AD variance (<i>R</i> = 0.55, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.01); and (5) AD and some of the studied individual differences explain 38% and 41% of GPA and contextual performance variance (<i>R</i> = 0.62, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.01 and <i>R</i> = 0.64, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.01). Implications for research and practice are discussed.