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To Cheat Or Not To Cheat: Impact Of Learning Disability Status On Reasons For Cheating, Mckenzie Elizabeth Perdew

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Academic cheating frequency, motivating factors for cheating, and student reasons for cheating have been studied extensively for decades, but nearly all of the research has been conducted with typically-developing students. To date, only one published study has examined cheating among students with learning disabilites, despite over 2 million students in American schools having been diagnosed with a learning disability.

Students who engage in academic cheating, as well as students who have learning disabilities, are more likely to have low levels of self-efficacy, hold more performance goal orientations, and have higher levels of impulsivity. Therefore, in the present study, individuals with …

To Cheat Or Not To Cheat: Impacts Of Learning Disability Status And Impulsivity On Cheating, Mckenzie Perdew

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Impulsivity is associated with academic dishonesty and deficits/disorders related to learning disabilities (LD). Despite separate connections made between impulsivity and academic cheating and between impulsivity and LD, there is little information in the literature regarding whether the impulsivity feature of some LD is related to higher rates of academic dishonesty among students with LD. We measured history of academic dishonesty, tolerance of academic dishonesty, and impulsivity in 83 Amazon Mechanical Turk participants. An independent samples t-test revealed that participants with LD exhibited higher levels of dysfunctional impulsivity compared to neurotypical (NT) peers. Dysfunctional impulsivity was associated with increased cheating tolerance. …