Confirmatory factor analysis of the Mechanisms of Moral Disengagement Scale and its relationship with antisocial and delinquent behavior among justice-involved youth Análisis Factorial Confirmatorio de la Escala de Mecanismos de Desconexión Moral y su relación con el comportamiento antisocial y delictivo en jóvenes en conflicto con la ley

This study analyzed the factor solutions of the Mechanisms of Moral Disengagement Scale (MMDS) and their relationship with antisocial and
delinquent behaviors in 844 justice-involved youth (M = 17.82 years, SD = 1.94) undergoing legal proceedings in the Colombian Juvenile
Criminal Responsibility System. Participants were administered a validated Colombian version of the moral disengagement scale. Results showed that the one-, three-, four-, and eight-factor models had good goodness-of-fit indicators and acceptable internal consistency indices. However, the eightfactor structure demonstrated a superior fit to the others when the fit indices of the proposed structural models were compared. The eight-factor structure also demonstrated acceptable internal consistency and direct correlations between the factors and antisocial and criminal behaviors.
These findings support that the scale is a reliable and valid measure of moral disengagement in justice-involved youth in the Colombian context.