Model of Causal Relationship between Goal Orientations and Academic Cheating in Male and Female University Students

This study examined the moderating effect of gender on the relationship between goal orientations and academic cheating among university students. In this correlational study, 200 university students (100 male and 100 female) responded to the Achievement Goal Questionnaire-Revised (AGQ-R, Elliot & Murayama, 2008) and the Academic Cheating Scale (ACS, Farnese Tramontano, Fida & Paciello, 2011). Multi-group structural equation modeling was used to assess the causal model of gender-moderating effects on the relationship between goal orientations and academic cheating among university students. Results indicated that for total sample and for male and female university students, the relationship between mastery-approach goal orientation with academic cheating was negative and significant and the relationship between mastery-avoidance-goal orientation, performance-approach goal orientation and performance-avoidance goal orientation with negative and academic cheating was positive and significance. Finally, the results showed that in the hypothetical causal models, 20% and 14% of the variance of academic cheating scores were explained through goal orientations in male and female students, respectively. In sum, the results of the present study, while supporting the conceptual positions of the achievement goal theory in explaining the motivational construct of academic cheating, showed that the functional characteristics of the motivational construct of goal orientations in predicting academic cheating behaviors in male and female university students were similar.