From 2020... Personality matters for student behavior: Higher conscientiousness and agreeableness predict less absenteeism, cheating, misuse of resources, lack of effort, rule-breaking, etc.

Cuadrado D, Salgado JF, Moscoso S (2020) Individual differences and counterproductive academic behaviors in high school. PLoS ONE 15(9): e0238892. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0238892

Abstract: Counterproductive academic behaviors (CAB) is a problem that has plagued academic institutions for centuries. However, research has mostly been focused on higher learning institutes in North America. For this reason, literature on CAB must be expanded to other geographical areas and academic levels. The present research analyses the prevalence and correlates of CAB in a sample of Spanish high school students. The results indicate that CAB is a common phenomenon, cheating and low effort behaviors being the most prevalent forms. Correlational analyses revealed that conscientiousness (ρ = -.55, p < .01), emotional stability (ρ = .28, p < .01), and agreeableness (ρ = -.26, p < .05) are predictors of CAB. Multiple regression analyses showed that conscientiousness is the dimension exerting the strongest impact on CAB (β = -.64, p < .01), followed by agreeableness, and emotional stability. These three dimensions accounted for 51% of CAB variance. Last, implications for theory and practice are described.

Discussion

This study has contributed to expand the knowledge on CAB in a context where primary research is severely lacking: the high school level of a country outside of the United States and Canada. The main objectives of this research were: (1) to examine the level of prevalence of overall CAB as well as its facets in this context; (2) to study the relationship of the Big Five model of personality and GMA with CAB and its facets; and (3) to develop an explicative model that summarizes the predictive effects of these individual differences on CAB.

Regarding the first goal, the results demonstrate that Spanish high school students often engage in counterproductive academic behaviors. The descriptive analyses of the CAB measure showed very high percentages of occurrence, indicating that most of the surveyed students have engaged in these negative practices during high school. One of the most worrisome aspects of the results is the fact that almost 83% and 82% of the sample acknowledges to having engaged in cheating and low effort behaviors at some point. Out of these rates, almost 17% and 21% of the sample confess to behaving in such ways always or almost always. These rates do not seem to differ much from empirical evidence gathered in the American context (described in the introduction section), nor are they very different from the occurrence rates found at other educational levels across the globe. For instance, the study by Teixeira and Rocha [52] reported on the percentage of college students engaging on deviant behaviors during examinations in different countries. Their findings yielded percentages as high as 83% in Brazil (N = 100), 71.6% in Austria (N = 519), 79.6% in Turkey (N = 528), or 84.6% in Slovenia (N = 321). Trost [53] found that 81% of 322 university students in Sweden had lied about a significant matter to get special treatment in the correction of their exams. Cuadrado, Salgado, and Moscoso [54] also report very similar results using a sample of 379 Spanish college students. The percentages of the students engaging in CAB at least once in college were 76.5%, 23.5%, 77.9%, 43.5%, and 76.2% for cheating, misuse of resources, absenteeism, breach of rules, and low effort behaviors, respectively.

In essence, the descriptive analyses indicated once again that CAB is a common phenomenon among high school students, with similar or even higher rates than those published in other countries and educational stages.

The next set of findings concerns the CAB correlates. Consistent with previous results, conscientiousness was the personality dimension most strongly linked to overall CAB and, especially, to three out of the five CAB facets (cheating, absenteeism, and low effort). Agreeableness was also a valid predictor of overall CAB and the best predictor of misuse of resources and breach of rules. Both dimensions appeared to be inversely linked to academic counterproductivity and yielded true effect sizes higher in magnitude than those reported in previous meta-analysis on this topic [see 17, 18]. For instance, there were .31 and .13 units of correlation of difference for conscientiousness and agreeableness, respectively, between the results found in the current research and the effect sizes published by Cuadrado et al. [17] using samples of high school students. This further backs up the hypothesis that even in high school, the more a student scores in conscientiousness and agreeableness, the less likely they are to engage in CAB.

In line with the findings by Cuadrado et al. [17] and supporting the research hypothesis, extraversion appeared as a direct and valid predictor of cheating behaviors. As it happened with conscientiousness and agreeableness, the true validity found in the current research was considerably larger (ρ = .19 vs. ρ = .43).

There were unexpected results referring to emotional stability. Neither meta-analyses by Giluk and Postlethwaite [18] nor by Credé et al. [16] found a link between this dimension and negative academic behaviors. In the meta-analysis of Cuadrado et al. [17] emotional stability appeared as a valid predictor of overall CAB at the high school level, however, the magnitude of the effect size was very low (ρ = .06). In the current research it seems that the most emotionally stable individuals are more prone to commit CAB than their unstable counterparts, especially regarding low effort behaviors, misuse of resources, and absenteeism. A possible explanation supporting this positive relationship might be the fact that emotional stable individuals tend to score high in traits such as tranquility, calmness, or imperturbability [20–23]. A higher score in these characteristics could make these individuals less prone to show a sense of urgency, to be more carefree, and hence, to have less qualms about not attending classes, not completing their classwork on time, not striving academically, or using academic supplies and equipment in an improper manner.

Regarding GMA, the results did not emerge as expected. GMA appeared as a weak predictor of overall CAB and its facets. In no case the results were significant. Additionally, the directionality was not as expected; except for the cheating facet, the validity coefficients were positive. These results are different to previous findings by Cuadrado et al. [17], Paulhus and Dubois [19], and Credé et al. [16]. Some possible explanations of these differences could be the sampling error effect or the existence of moderating variables that might be affecting the results. Consequently, more primary research on this relationship is needed.

The last goal of this research was to create an explicative model of CAB by incorporating the most powerful predictors found at the correlational level. The estimated model showed that the variables most highly linked to CAB (conscientiousness, agreeableness, and emotional stability) explain more than half of the CAB variance. Conscientiousness was the variable with the highest predictive weight, which is also consistent with previous findings [see 54].

Suggestions for practitioners and future research

The empirical findings of the current research are important for applied purposes in the context of secondary education. First, academic administrators, faculty, and parents must be made aware of the fact that CAB is not an isolated problem affecting only a few specific academic institutions at certain academic levels in +a limited number of countries. Although research has been mostly performed in the higher education system of North America, empirical evidence indicates that it is a widespread phenomenon across the world that can be found in the lowest to the highest levels of education. The present study showed that levels of occurrence among the students of a Spanish high school are very high. For this reason, applied measures must be designed and taken into practice. Some of these deterrent measures are related to the variables examined in this study. It was shown that emotional stability, agreeableness, and especially conscientiousness predict CAB and its facets. The use of personality measures in secondary education cannot be conceived in the same way as in higher education or occupational contexts, where these instruments can be used to make high-stakes decisions (e.g., to determine access to a masters course, to a PhD program, or to an occupational position). However, knowing the personality profiles of the students, especially in small-sized classrooms, may be of some utility in high schools. The use of personality instruments could help identify those students with certain personality characteristics that, potentially, make them more likely to engage in CAB and, consequently, may need more personalized attention in the performance of certain academic activities like tests or examinations. This would reduce their chances of engaging in prohibited conducts and help increase the fairness of assessments by preventing dishonest students from getting a higher grade than they deserve.

Besides the use of personality measures as a preventive initiative, it has become more necessary than ever to promote additional integrity measures in high schools. As Bertram-Gallant and Drinan [55] state, systematic interventions performed by administrators, faculty, and students are needed to establish a climate of academic integrity. All the involved actors, especially students, must be aware of behaviors that qualify as CAB, the consequences of engaging in CAB, and the benefits of behaving in an honest manner. These actions may potentially reduce the prevalence of CAB.

The next suggestion refers to the response format of the personality measures. In the current study, a single-stimulus instrument was used to assess the Big Five dimensions of personality. This type of measures is widely used in the W/O psychology and the educational psychology field. However, they show substantial correlation with social desirability and impression management in students [56]. It is known that forced-choice inventories, especially quasi-ipsative tests, are a preferable option when it comes to control faking or social desirability [57–61]. Furthermore, quasi-ipsative personality inventories have shown a similar or a better predictive validity than personality tests with other formats in the prediction of important criteria in both occupational and educational contexts [62–64]. In the study of CAB, only Cuadrado et al. [50] have analyzed this question using a quasi-ipsative questionnaire for higher education students. Hence, it is necessary to examine whether predictive validity of the Big Five personality model is similar or higher at the high school level by using quasi-ipsative personality measures.

In regard to the social desirability concern, meta-analytical evidence indicates that students scoring higher in this variable also tend to underreport their engagement in cheating behaviors [41]. Despite the fact that percentages of engagement in CAB found in the current research were very high, results could be even higher if they were controlled for a measure of social desirability. Researchers should address this question at the high school level.

We also suggest making further efforts in the study of the intelligence-CAB relationship. Given that neither the magnitude nor the directionality of the results were the expected, we recommend researchers to study more in depth the link between these variables in the Spanish secondary education context.

It is also recommended to expand the study of CAB to other practices that have not been contemplated in the current research. Although we have examined a wide range of CAB behaviors, there are some other facets that need to be further studied. One example is plagiarism of written projects defined as “submitting another person’s work as an original work or a project done by oneself but previously submitted in the past, as well as any other behavior that consists of the dishonest alteration of others’ work” [17]. Levels of occurrence of such behavior are believed to have increased in recent years due to technological advances and the expanded use of the Internet in multiple phases of the students’ academic life. Thus, it would be interesting to replicate the current study and analyze plagiarism behaviors.

Additionally, we suggest testing some possible moderating variables that could have affected our results. For instance, the high schools that participated in this research were without exception public institutions. It could be interesting to replicate this research in private schools. Other contextual variables as well as individual differences other than personality and intelligence should be also addressed in future research.

Limitations of the study

It is important to consider the limitations of this study. First, the time restrictions in the data collection made it impossible to administer all the instruments to a part of the sample. As a direct consequence, the sample size for the personality measure was smaller than the sample size obtained for the GMA and CAB measures. It is known that small samples increase sampling error, causing a random variation of the observed validity from the true validity [42]. Also, because the sampling error is unsystematic, it cannot be corrected in a single correlation and there is no possibility to control its effects unless the validity coefficients are integrated in a meta-analysis, hindering the replicability of the results as well.

A second potential limitation is that the questionnaires were not anonymous. Although the rates of engagement in counterproductivity were very high, it is possible that anonymity would yield even higher prevalence levels, especially in those dimensions where rates were lower (e.g., misuse of resources).