The Relationship between Moral Characters and Academic Dishonesty in Students: The Mediating Role of Moral Disengagement

Academic dishonesty is one of the important challenges of educational centers. In the present study, the role of moral disengagement mediators’ in the relationship between moral characters and academic dishonesty was investigated. The present study is a correlation study. The statistical population included all students of Shiraz University and the participants were 246 students selected by random cluster sampling. Moral disengagement and academic dishonesty scales and moral characters questionnaire were used to measure the research variables. Structural Equation Modeling was performed using AMOS software to analyze the research data. The results of the structural equation model showed that positive moral characters are directly related to academic dishonesty, also negative moral characters has a significant relationship with academic dishonesty directly and with mediating of moral disengagement. Moral disengagement has been directly predictor of academic dishonesty in students, too. According to the findings, it can be concluded that positive moral characters directly and negative moral characters directly and with mediating of moral disengagement can predict academic dishonesty. Moral disengagement was predictor of academic dishonesty in students, too.