Đogaš Varja, Jerončić Ana, Marušić Matko, Marušić Ana
BMC Med Educ. 2014 Dec 30;14:1048. doi: 10.1186/s12909-014-0277-y.
Academic cheating does not happen as an isolated action of an individual but is most often a collaborative practice. As there are few studies that looked at who are collaborators in cheating, we investigated medical students' readiness to engage others in academic dishonest behaviours.
In a cross-sectional survey study in Zagreb, Croatia, 592 medical students from the first, 3rd and 6th (final) study year anonymously answered a survey of readiness to ask family, friends, colleagues or strangers for help in 4 different forms of academic cheating or for 2 personal material favours. Stepwise multiple linear regression models (MLR) were used to evaluate potential factors influencing propensity for engaging others in these two types of behaviour.
Many students would ask another person for help in academic cheating, from 88.8% to 26.9% depending on a cheating behaviour. Students would most often ask a family member or friend for help in academic cheating. The same "helpers" were identified for non-academic related behaviour - asking for personal material favours. More respondents, however, would include three or four persons for asking help in academic cheating than for routine material favours. Score on material favours survey was the strongest positive predictor of readiness for asking help in academic cheating (stepwise MLR model; beta = 0.308, P < 0.0001) followed by extrinsic motivation (compensation) and male gender, whereas intrinsic motivation, year of study and grade point average were weak negative predictors.
Our study indicates that medical students are willing to engage more than one person in either close or distant relationships in academic cheating. In order to develop effective preventive measures to deter cheating at medical academic institutions, factors surrounding students' preference towards academic cheating rather than routine favours should be further investigated.
学术作弊并非个人的孤立行为，而往往是一种协同行为。由于很少有研究关注作弊行为中的协同者，我们调查了医学生让他人参与学术不端行为的意愿。
在克罗地亚萨格勒布进行的一项横断面调查研究中，来自一年级、三年级和六年级（最后一年）的592名医学生匿名回答了一项关于在4种不同形式的学术作弊或2种个人物质帮助方面向家人、朋友、同事或陌生人寻求帮助的意愿的调查。采用逐步多元线性回归模型（MLR）来评估影响让他人参与这两种行为倾向的潜在因素。
许多学生会在学术作弊方面向他人寻求帮助，根据作弊行为的不同，这一比例从88.8%到26.9%不等。学生在学术作弊方面最常向家人或朋友寻求帮助。在与学术无关的行为（寻求个人物质帮助）中也发现了同样的“帮助者”。然而，相比寻求日常物质帮助，更多的受访者会在学术作弊方面寻求三到四个人的帮助。物质帮助调查得分是在学术作弊方面寻求帮助意愿的最强正向预测因素（逐步MLR模型；β = 0.308，P < 0.0001），其次是外部动机（报酬）和男性性别，而内部动机、学年和平均绩点是较弱的负向预测因素。
我们的研究表明，医学生愿意让关系亲近或疏远的多人参与学术作弊。为了制定有效的预防措施来遏制医学院校的作弊行为，应进一步调查学生在学术作弊而非日常帮助方面的偏好所涉及的因素。
