Personality as a moderator of the relationship between stress and academic deviance

Academic deviance poses a continual threat to the education system from its persistence through generations and its presence in almost every form of institutionalized education (Davis et al., 1992). The aim of the present study was to integrate both situational and individual components of stress to examine their influence on academic deviance while testing the moderating role of trait impulsiveness on the degree of academic deviance displayed. Participants were 125 (98 women, 27 men) college students at a private university in the southern region of the United States. The Academic Dishonesty Inventory (Lucas, 2005) was used to measure academic deviance, while the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale 10 (BIS-10) was utilized in order to assess impulsiveness. The Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen, Karmarck & Mermelstein, 1983) was used to gauge participants' stress level. It was found that there was a significant, positive relationship between trait impulsiveness and academic deviance. However, the relationship between stress and academic deviance was not significant. Stress may play less of a role than impulsiveness in determining if an individual will engage in academic deviance. As Anderman et al. (2010) suggest, impulsiveness is indicative of the lack of selfcontrol necessary to disincline individuals to be academically deviant. The concept of academic deviance has been documented for the past 60 years while legitimate research has only began in roughly the last 20 years (Davis et al., 1992). Academic deviance can be here considered cheating among college students who intentionally use materials, information or study aids which are prohibited in work submitted for credit. The prevalence estimates for academic deviance from previous studies range from 76 to 90% of all college students in a given study (Baird, 1980; Stern & Havlicek, 1986). More men tend to engage in academic deviance than women and rates are higher among college students than other groups. The prevalence also varies by the type of school attended, where larger public schools report more academic deviance than smaller private ones (Davis et al., 1992). Academic deviance poses a continual threat to the education system from its persistence through generations and its presence in almost every form of institutionalized education. The antecedents of academic deviance remain an issue of heavy dispute. Studies have shown that there are more factors at work that provide motivation for cheating behaviors besides academic success. There may individual or situational components to cheating behavior. According to McCabe and Trevino (1996), one situational component to academic deviance originates in a student's academic environment. In small private institutions students feel a sense of community with their classmates where individuals may feel guilty about cheating. Ethical values at such institutions are encouraged more so than in their larger public counterparts. Attitudes were a contributing factor to academic deviance in a study by Klein, Levenburg, McKendall, and Mothersell (2006). Business students were compared to other majors and no statistical differences were found, yet the attitudes of college students with business majors made them more relaxed about committing academic deviance. Parental perceptions were found to be a factor affecting academic deviance, and it was the second biggest predictor of cheating behaviors (Koljatic et al., 2003). Gender and age have also been seen to influence academic deviance at an individual level. In a meta-analysis men were shown to cheat more than women (Ford & Richardson, 1994). Younger unmarried students were also found to cheat more than others (Whitley, 1998). The aim of the present study is to integrate both situational and individual components by examining stress