title: Academic dishonesty among Italian nursing students: A longitudinal study.
abstract: Considering the ethical issues related to nursing and that Ethics is an integral part of the nursing education in the degree course, one would suppose that academic dishonesty might be less frequent in nursing students than in students of other disciplines. However, several studies show that this trend of deceitful behaviour seems to be similar among the university nursing students and those of other disciplines. The aim of this study is to investigate the phenomenon of academic dishonesty in the classroom from a longitudinal perspective within a cohort of Italian nursing students. A non-experimental longitudinal design was used. All nursing students were recruited from the Nursing Science Bachelor Degree Program of a big Italian university in the centre of Italy and participants were part of an ongoing longitudinal research project which started in 2011 on nursing students' wellbeing. The results show that students get accustomed to taking academically deceitful actions. They come to consider their behaviours acceptable and normal, thereby stabilizing them, which increases the probability of stabilizing subsequent deceitful behaviours. The stability through time of academic cheating behaviours committed during higher education, within the study's timeframe, provides important perspectives into the establishment of rigorous standards of ethical and moral behaviours by the students.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy. Electronic address: loreana.macale@torvergatasora.it.
authors.forename: Loreana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Macale
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Valerio
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Ghezzi
authors.affiliation: IPASVI Board of Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Gennaro
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rocco
authors.affiliation: Lecturer Business School, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Roberta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fida
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Ercole
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Vellone
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Rosaria
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Alvaro
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D008192:Deception; D004508:Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate; D004993:Ethics, Nursing; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009014:Morals; D013338:Students, Nursing
keywords: Academic dishonesty; Academic misbehaviours; Cheating; Ethical; Undergraduate nursing