Socio-cognitive determinants of plagiarism intentions among university students during emergency online learning: Integrating emotional, motivational, and moral factors into theory of planned behavior

Abstract

The exceptional circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 closures of campuses and emergency online learning have caused challenging circumstances on preserving academic integrity. Still, little is known about how the interplay between diverse contextual and psychological determinants influences beliefs and inclinations to plagiarism during online learning. The current study aims to understand better multiple factors that predict attitudes and intentions to commit plagiarism during and after the pandemic. To that end, an extended model based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB) that examines the impact of socio-psychological, emotional, motivational, and ethical factors explaining plagiarism intentions was tested. The study applied a survey instrument to a sample of 435 undergraduate students from three universities in Oman. Using the Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), the results showed that fear of COVID-19 significantly and positively impacted the plagiarism attitude. Academic self-efficacy significantly and negatively influenced attitudes to plagiarism. All TPB variables significantly influenced intention to plagiarize, including subjective norms, attitudes perceived behavioral control and past behavior, except moral obligation. The current study’s findings contributed to theory advancement by extending TPB to examining antecedents to subjective norms toward plagiarism and emotional and motivational determinants of attitudes. Finally, the current study recommends practical and research implications for curbing digital plagiarism in higher education post to the pandemic.

Keywords:

• plagiarism
• fear of COVID-19
• theory of planned behavior
• motivation
• academic self-efficacy
• moral obligation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Compliance with Ethical Standards

Ethical approvals were obtained from the institutions in which the sample was recruited. Informed consent was obtained from all participating students.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets analyzed in the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

The authors have no funding to report.