I notice that the trend of children cheating in Malaysia is consistent with the reported data in the U.S.
Clinical psychologists and other educational experts found that grades are more important than learning—it is linked to higher rates of cheating. Because children constantly receive messages that they are good when they have achieved something, they cheat to win as they want to be the best!
Children may cheat in exam to keep up with their peers or to please parents or teachers. Other children start feeling pressured by sports, co-curriculum activies and skills enrichment programs that they have been left with little time for study.
Some parents get stressed up, consequently, they become too involved in their children's homework and school activities. Children are enrolled in abundance of tutions in Malaysia. Some schools have prolonged learning period till very late afternoon. In fact, apart being 'programmed' by their parents, the children themselves request for tuitions due to stiff competitions.
Clinically, children appear fatigue, irritable and have fear, which can lead to mental health problems such as anxiety and depression.
To my surprise, children with poor study skills or learning disabilities are especially vulnerable; poor impulse control is linked with a higher readiness to cheat, says 2010 study of 189 children in the Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology.
Peer pressure to cheat is huge. If your classmate asks for answers and don't share them, it can be a major offense among the kids. According to a 2012 survey of 23,000 high-school students by the Josephson Institute of Ethics, in Los Angeles, cheating rates rise through middle school and by high school, 51% of students admit to cheating on a test in the past year, and 74% say they have copied another student's homework. This figure is worrisome, what do these figures imply- our future generation?
This is totally not a healthy phenomenon! Definitely, it's the talking topic in child clinical psychology currently.
