E-dishonesty among postgraduate students and its relation to self-esteem

Academic dishonesty is basically defined as unethical or undeserved behavior by students within an educational setting. Although numerous studies have been published that were conducted with undergraduate students, much less is known about the e-dishonesty of postgraduate students. In this study, besides determining the status of e-dishonesty levels of postgraduate students, the relationship between e-dishonesty and self-esteem was also investigated. The study was conducted with 223 postgraduate students registered to master's or doctoral degree programs and working as research assistants in education faculties of universities located in Turkey. The study's results revealed a low level of e-dishonesty among the participants, and a significant and negative, low-level relationship between e-dishonesty and self-esteem. The master's students were found to be more likely to engage in e-dishonesty than those studying for a PhD, as were postgraduate students with 1-3 years of computer use experience compared to other groups. The e-dishonesty levels of the postgraduate students were not found to change according to their gender, daily computer or Internet use habits, or their Internet use experience.