Presenting a Model of Religious Attitude and the Practice of Religious Beliefs with Academic Cheating: The Mediating Role of Academic Self-Efficacy

The aim of the present study was to present a model of religious attitude and the practice of religious beliefs with academic cheating with an emphasis on the mediating role of academic self-efficacy. This descriptive-correlational study applied the structural equation modeling, and its population included all female students of second high school in the city of Khorramabad in the academic year 2016-2017 (9981 students). The sample size of 240 was determined by the rule of thumb Kline (2015), and the sample was formed by the stratified random sampling according to district and academic level. Collecting the data was done by the questionnaires of the practice of religious beliefs, religious attitude, academic self-efficacy, and academic cheating. All analyses were performed by the structural equation modeling. The results showed that the practice of religious beliefs, without the mediating role of academic self-efficacy, has a direct effect, and with the mediating role of academic self-efficacy, has an indirect effect on academic cheating; but religious attitude does not have any effect on academic cheating. Moreover, academic self-efficacy, negatively and significantly, has a direct effect on academic cheating. In general, it can be said in spite of the important role of attitudes in directing and forming individuals' behaviors, positive religious attitude, itself, is not the only sufficient factor of preventing deviant behavior, and it should result in a function, so that it can act as a deterrent.