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• Students may experience anxiety if the purpose of a task, what constitutes success, or what constitutes academic misconduct is not clearly articulated.
• Students rarely receive explicit guidance about the extent to which external tools may be used or what counts as fair use.��
• Lack of nuanced, ongoing class discussions can result in a lack of clarity around evolving expectations regarding academic integrity.��

Instructors at the same institution often vary in how they define and enforce norms around collaboration and integrity, which may further confuse students ().��

• High-stakes assessments typically form a large portion of a student's final grade, where mistakes are irreversible, and performance is prioritized.
• Pressure in these contexts may stem from course structure, cumulative deadlines, or perceived consequences of failure, and is intensified by broader labor‑market pressures and the rising cost of higher education owing to neoliberalization.
• When assessments emphasize polished final products over drafts, reflection, or documented learning processes, students may see limited payoff to persisting through struggle, particularly during time‑intensive or challenging tasks.
• In these combined conditions, academic misconduct may feel like risk management rather than deliberate rule‑breaking, especially if shortcuts allow students to complete work more efficiently and redirect time to other demands.

• Students consistently report an unmanageable workload as the most common reason for misconduct ().
• Instructors often underestimate the extent to which workload may be unmanageable or the extent to which executive functioning skills may be developing in early adult learners.��
• Students may also feel underconfident and struggle with low self-efficacy (i.e., a belief that they cannot succeed at a given task), thus reducing their willingness to persist.
• If feedback or support is not timely, it can intensify stress, increasing the likelihood of using unauthorized resources for further support.

• Students unfamiliar with disciplinary norms, citation practices, or U.S. academic conventions, particularly first-generation students, may view external help as compensatory support rather than misconduct.
• Cultural differences in how collaboration, authorship and the stakes associated with assessments, may influence how international students engage with coursework (;��).
• Thus, students may unintentionally engage in academic misconduct in ways that are misaligned with instructors’ expectations rather than intentionally deceptive.

• Even if expectations are clear, assessments if students do not see how they connect to course learning goals, the skills they hope to develop, or applications relevant to their interests or future careers.
• When the purpose or value of an assessment is unclear, students may be less motivated to engage deeply with the work.
• In these contexts, academic integrity requirements may be perceived as procedural rather than meaningful, increasing disengagement or the tendency to use shortcuts

• Students are more likely to engage in misconduct if their peers do so without consequences ().��
• Students often perceive academic misconduct as a victimless crime, and may fail to consider how it can affect their own learning and undermine trust.
• Widespread cheating may further isolate students, if peers question their loyalty or trustworthiness for refusing to “help” or for threatening to report misconduct.��
• Thus, peer dynamics can reinforce aiding misconduct even among students who otherwise value integrity.