Department of Psychology, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick E3B 5A3, Canada.
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1V6, Canada.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2024 Aug;244:105948. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2024.105948. Epub 2024 May 15.
This study investigated the relationship between parental reports of children's behavioral problems and their cheating behaviors on simulated academic tests, addressing a significant gap in understanding early childhood academic cheating and its potential links to broader behavioral issues. We hypothesized that children's early problem behaviors would be predictive of their academic cheating. To test these hypotheses, children aged 4 to 12 years took part in six unmonitored academic tests that measured their cheating behaviors while their parents completed the Child Behavior Checklist and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire elsewhere. Separate hierarchical linear regressions revealed that children's problem behaviors, as reported by parents, overall significantly predict children's cheating behaviors even after accounting for demographic variables such as age, gender, ethnicity, and parental religiosity. Specifically, the Conduct Problems subscale of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire showed a significant and unique association with children's cheating behaviors above and beyond the common contributions of all predictors. However, the Child Behavior Checklist scores and the scores on the other Strengths and Difficulties subscales were not significantly or uniquely related to cheating. These findings offer new insight into simulated childhood academic cheating and its relation to problem behaviors observed by parents.
本研究旨在探讨父母报告的儿童行为问题与他们在模拟学术测试中的作弊行为之间的关系，旨在填补对儿童早期学术作弊及其与更广泛行为问题之间潜在联系的理解空白。我们假设儿童早期的问题行为会预测他们的学术作弊行为。为了检验这些假设，4 至 12 岁的儿童参加了六次无人监督的学术测试，在这些测试中，他们的作弊行为得到了测量，而他们的父母则在其他地方完成了《儿童行为检查表》和《长处与困难问卷》。独立分层线性回归显示，即使考虑了年龄、性别、种族和父母宗教信仰等人口统计学变量，父母报告的儿童问题行为总体上显著预测了儿童的作弊行为。具体来说，《长处与困难问卷》中的行为问题子量表在所有预测因素的共同贡献之外，与儿童的作弊行为存在显著而独特的关联。然而，《儿童行为检查表》的得分以及其他《长处与困难问卷》子量表的得分与作弊行为没有显著或独特的关系。这些发现为模拟儿童学术作弊及其与父母观察到的问题行为之间的关系提供了新的见解。
