Examining Cognitive Predictors Of Academic Cheating Among Urban Middle School Students

Academic cheating within the middle grades has become a prevalent schooling dilemma for teachers and administrators. Among the various contextual and cognitive factors that promote academic cheating is homeschool dissonance, which has been shown to predict the phenomenon among high school students. The current study extends this line of research by examining the relationship between middle school students’ reports of perceived home-school dissonance and their reports of academic efficacy, mastery goal orientation, performance approach goal orientation, performance avoidance goal orientation, and academic cheating. Six hundred sixty middle school students completed 6 subscales of the Patterns of Adaptive Learning scale, including the home-school dissonance subscale, the academic efficacy subscale, mastery goal orientation, performance approach, and performance avoidance goal orientation, and the academic cheating subscales. Although, on average, the home-school dissonance and academic cheating variables were below the scale midpoints, regression analyses revealed that home-school dissonance significantly predicted all other variables, including academic cheating. In addition, path analytic techniques showed that the academic efficacy, performance approach goal orientation, and performance avoidance goal orientation variables were significant mediators of the relationship between home-school dissonance and academic cheating. Mastery goal orientation only served as a marginally statistically significant mediator for the home-school dissonance—academic cheating association. Study limitations and implications for study findings are discussed.