The effect of demographics on the ethical sensitivity of accounting students

Ethical behavior is a foundational element of the trust placed in the Accounting profession by users of accounting information in the United States of America. Recent scandals have disturbed the business world and brought into question the ethical behavior of both internal accountants and independent Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) involved in the issuing of financial statements for public companies such as Enron. A review of several Christian colleges' and universities' curriculum in Northern Indiana reveals that few such institutions require an accounting ethics course for their students to receive an undergraduate degree in accounting and yet accounting leadership both in the United States and internationally are asking for additional ethics education at the undergraduate level. The purpose of this study was to test for determinants of accounting ethical sensitivity in both public university accounting students and Christian university accounting students in the United States. A study of the determinants of accounting students' ethical sensitivity using religiosity as one of the independent variables had not been completed, or the results of such a study have not been published, in the United States. Results of this study suggest neither accounting ethics education nor religiosity is a statistically significant determinant of accounting ethical sensitivity.