Academic integrity violations: a national study of dental hygiene students.

The purpose of this study was to identify the prevalence of academic integrity violations reported by a national sample of dental hygiene students as compared to general undergraduate students. This study also examined the influence of student variables such as gender, age, and level of education, along with honor codes and other contextual factors, on academic integrity. A total of 2,050 surveys were mailed to a random selection of the schools with dental hygiene degree programs in each of the twelve American Dental Hygienists' Association (ADHA) districts. A total of 794 usable surveys were returned for an overall response rate of 39 percent. The respondents were predominantly twenty to twenty-nine years of age (85 percent), and 97.7 percent were female. The largest percentage of respondents (38.5 percent) had completed four or more years of undergraduate education at the time of the survey, with the majority of the coursework taken in a community college setting (39 percent). Approximately 53 percent were from associate programs and 47 percent from baccalaureate programs. Of those responding, 11.3 percent reported cheating during their dental hygiene program, and 30.2 percent were aware of someone cheating in their program. A comparison of academic violations for dental hygiene students to students in other undergraduate programs reveals that a smaller proportion of dental hygiene students report violations.