Test anxiety, attitude to schooling, parental influence, and peer pressure as predictors of students cheating tendencies in examination in Edo state, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated test anxiety, attitude to schooling, parental influence, and peer pressure as predictors of cheating tendencies in examination among secondary school students in Edo State, Nigeria. Ex-post facto research design was adopted for the study. Using stratified random sampling technique, 1200 senior secondary two (SS 2) students were selected for the study. A 60-item, four-point Likert type questionnaire developed by the researchers was used for data collection. The data collected were analysed using multiple regression analysis. The results revealed that test anxiety, attitude to schooling, parental influence and peer pressure jointly significantly predict students’ cheating tendencies in examination. The result also showed that about 34.2% of the total variation in cheating tendencies is accounted for by test anxiety, attitude to schooling, parental influence and peer pressure. It was recommended that teachers, parents and counselors should identify strategies of reducing test anxiety, develop students positive attitude to schooling, and advise students not to imitate their peers’ unwholesome ways of life, as these will help reduce cheating tendencies during examinations.

KEYWORDS: Test anxiety; Attitude to schooling; Parental influence; Peer pressure; Cheating tendency; Examination malpractice.