Description
Introduction: Several studies have indicated that the tendency to lie is more prevalent in adolescents compared to children and adults (Buta et al., 2020; DePaulo et al., 1996; Levine et al., 2013). Studying the motivations behind this behaviour can be essential to gaining a deeper understanding of this phenomenon.
Objective: Study the different reasons for lying among the adolescent population.
Method: The methodology used was Mixed Methods Research (MMR). The sample consisted of a total of 433 adolescents (M=12.77; SD=.97) from the general population of the State of Jalisco, Mexico (42.60% women). For data collection, the CEMA-A questionnaire (Armas-Vargas, 2023) and an open-ended question about the main reasons for lying were used. For quantitative data analysis, the SPSS program, v.26, was used, and for qualitative analysis, the lexical analysis software IRAMUTEQ 0.8a7 was employed.
Results: The MANOVA was significant for the interaction of gender and age variables. The analysis of qualitative responses allowed the extraction of two classes: ”avoiding harm or punishment” (34%) and ”hiding information” (66%). Significant relationships were observed between this two classes and the study’s different quantitative variables.
Conclusion: This research contributes to the existing literature by providing novel data on the motives that drive the lying behaviour in adolescents. We highlighted the importance of using MMR and suggest continuing this line of study with a sample of older participants.
