Self-Concept and Self-Efficacy as Correlates of Examination Malpractice Tendency Among Public Secondary School Students in Obollo-Afor Education Zone, Enugu State

Résumé

This study investigated self-concept and self-efficacy as correlates of examination malpractice tendency among public secondary school students in Obollo-Afor Education Zone of Enugu State, Nigeria. Two research questions guided the study, while two null hypotheses were tested at the 0.05 level of significance. The study adopted a correlational survey research design. The population comprised 2,022 Senior Secondary two (SS II) students in the 50 public secondary schools in the three local government areas of the education zone for the 2025/2026 academic session. A sample of 300 SS II students was selected through cluster sampling and simple random sampling, out of which 275 copies of the instruments were retrieved and analysed. Data were collected using the Self-Concept Questionnaire (SCQ) adopted from Reynolds, Ramirez, Magrina and Allen (1980), the Self-Efficacy Scale (SES) adopted from Sherer et al. (1982) and the Examination Malpractice Tendency Questionnaire (EMTQ) adapted from Anyanwu (2020). The EMTQ was face-validated by three experts, and its reliability, established with Cronbach alpha, was 0.76. Data were analysed using Pearson product moment correlation coefficient. The findings revealed that a strong negative and significant relationship existed between students’ self-concept and examination malpractice tendency (r = -0.716, p < .001), and also between students’ self-efficacy and examination malpractice tendency (r = -0.601, p < .001). It was recommended, among others, that school administrators should adopt teaching strategies that build students’ academic self-concept and self-efficacy, such as mastery learning, timely and specific feedback, and scaffolding of topics, so that examination malpractice tendency among students will be reduced.