Does Academic-Procrastination predict College Students’ Exam Cheating Behaviour?: the Mediational effects of Self-Efficacy for Self-Regulation and Test-Anxiety

Abstract Exam Cheating has been a common misbehaving activity amongst higher education level students. This study was aimed at examining the prevalence of exam cheating behavior amongst college students, and explore the mediating roles of self-efficacy for self-regulation and test-anxiety in the association between academic-procrastination and exam cheating behavior. A cross-sectional design was used for the study of 340 Ethiopian college students. Respondents completed measures of exam cheating behavior, academic procrastination, self-efficacy for self-regulation, and test-anxiety. Pearson correlation was used to assess the bivariate associations, and path analysis was used to investigate mediation. Amongst the 340 college students, about 212 (62.35%) admitted to cheating in exams. The score for exam cheating was positively correlated with scores for academic-procrastination and test-anxiety, and negatively correlated with the score for self-efficacy for self-regulation. Moreover, the association between academic-procrastination and exam cheating was fully mediated by the indirect effect of self-efficacy for self-regulation: β = .15, 95% bootstrap CI .10 to .19 and indirect effect of test-anxiety: β = .07, 95% CI .04 to .11 bootstrap. The results indicate that interventions aimed at developing self-efficacy for self-regulation and test-anxiety conquest may prevent or lessen exam cheating behaviors among college students, particularly for those with high academic procrastination.