Age Differences and Dishonesty in High School

Abstract

1629 northeast Georgia adolescents, ages,13 thru 17+, attending 22 high schools, responded, anonymously, to Questions asking about the cheating being practiced in their schools, their own projected and admitted deceitful behavior in certain educational situations, and their beliefs about effects of school deceit on contemporary society.

Chi-square applied to the responses revealed many significant differences between the responses of the five age groups studied.

Age differences were found in the following areas: (1) estimates of the amount of on-going cheating, (2) opinions about which courses are cheated in most, (3) how and by whom cheaters should be punished, (4) willingness to “squeal” on cheaters, (5) cheating or giving help on tests and other tasks, (6) deceiving teachers and administrators in various ways (sometimes with the connivance of parents), and (7) the carryover of deceit from school to job, college, home, and its prevalence in contemporary society.