Demographic and School Factors Associated with Students’ Predisposition towards Poor Performance in School Examinations

Abstract

Aims: The purpose of this article is to examine the factors associated with students’ predisposition towards academic dishonesty in educational assessments and provided a framework for adopting proactive counselling strategy against dishonest examination behavior. Study Design: The study employed a quantitative survey research design. Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted with 294,580 final-year secondary school students in Southern Nigeria during the 2024/2025 academic session from October 2024 to May 2025. Methodology: A purposive sampling technique was employed to select a sample of 3,600 students. Purposive sampling was used because only students who gave consent participated in the study. A standardized Academic Integrity Measurement Instrument was used to collect data. Simple Linear Regression, Mean Scores, T-tests, and Analysis of Variance were utilized to analyze the data. Results: Age significantly predicted examination integrity (β = -.13, P-value = .000) ; there was significant impact of gender on students’ predisposition towards examination malpractices (t = -3.31, P-value = .001; there was significant impact of religion on students’ disposition towards examination malpractices (mean difference is significant at the 0.05 level); parental educational qualifications and occupations significantly influenced students’ predisposition towards examination malpractices (R Squared = .039 (Adjusted R Squared = .021).); there was significant influence of school type on students’ predisposition towards examination malpractices (F = 100.93, P<0.05); and, social science and science courses exerted significant influences on students’ predisposition towards examination malpractices (mean difference is significant at the 0.05 level). Conclusion: Implementation of school administrative and counselling interventions and policies that includes demographic and school-based factors will constitute a vital approach to mitigating the tendency towards the perpetuation of cheating behaviour in school examinations. This approach is grounded in the expanded theory of planned behavior and this constituted the framework for preventive actions against examination malpractices in schools.