Individual differences and counterproductive academic behaviors in high school

Counterproductive academic behaviors (CAB) is a problem that has plagued academic institutions for centuries. However, research has mostly been focused on higher learning institutes in North America. For this reason, literature on CAB must be expanded to other geographical areas and academic levels. The present research analyses the prevalence and correlates of CAB in a sample of Spanish high school students. The results indicate that CAB is a common phenomenon, cheating and low effort behaviors being the most prevalent forms. Correlational analyses revealed that conscientiousness (rho = -.55,p< .01), emotional stability (rho = .28,p< .01), and agreeableness (rho = -.26,p< .05) are predictors of CAB. Multiple regression analyses showed that conscientiousness is the dimension exerting the strongest impact on CAB (beta = -.64,p< .01), followed by agreeableness, and emotional stability. These three dimensions accounted for 51% of CAB variance. Last, implications for theory and practice are described.