Perceived factors associated with self-reported AI-assisted academic cheating among undergraduate students: Evidence from ethical ambiguity, technological affordances, institutional gaps, academic pressure, and peer comparison

Hanh Van Nguyen and Mai Thi-Thuy Duong

PLOS ONE, 2026, vol. 21, issue 9, 1-18

Abstract: The rapid development of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has made academic cheating in higher education increasingly complex and difficult to regulate. Using a cross-sectional self-report survey of 863 undergraduate students at a university of science and technology in Vietnam, this study examined the latent structure of students’ perceptions of factors associated with AI-assisted academic cheating and the associations of the resulting constructs with self-reported cheating behaviors. Data were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and covariance-based structural equation modeling. The results supported a three-factor structure consisting of AI-Assisted Academic Cheating Behaviors (AICB), Ethical Ambiguity, Technological Affordances, and Institutional Gaps (ETIG), and Academic Pressure and Peer Comparison (APPC). In the structural model, ETIG was positively associated with AICB (β = 0.228, p

Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0359549

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0359549

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