Academic Rigor and Pressures’ Impact on Willingness to Lie About Academic Performance in Adolescents

High schoolers often experience significant stress from various sources, such as lying. This paper’s goal is to address the prevalence and impact of lying among high school adolescents regarding their academic performance. Previous research has explored lying and cheating in school environments, focusing on elementary and college students, but high schoolers remain understudied. Additionally, most studies concentrate on exams rather than academics as a whole. With a survey, this study explores the impact of academic rigor and academic pressures, on lying about overall academic performance by high school students (n=152). Pearson Correlation tests were conducted to find connections between the variables. An ANOVA was conducted to see the impact of different amounts of APs, as they are different groups, not a singular variable with a scale. Findings suggest that pressures from parents, peers, and oneself strongly correlate with a higher likelihood of lying about academic achievement. Additionally, less rigorous students facing higher pressures exhibit greater dishonesty. This may result from perceived social and academic expectations. Holistically, this highlights the need to help alleviate student stress to create a culture of academic honesty. Future research can apply a variety of other methods and relationships to enhance knowledge of academic dishonesty among high school students.