Abstract

This study was to develop the scales that measures the extent to which Koreans perceive the events that are against their belief system and the extent to which they have suffered from those events. In the first study, the Moral Injury Events Scale comprised of nine items was constructed in Korean through double translation. Additionally, the Moral Injury Experience Scale was constructed with 18 items. In addition to these 27 items, the responses of 496 Korean adults who participated in an online survey on shame, guilt, and anger were analyzed. The total data were randomly divided with two samplings, one to conduct exploratory factor analysis and the other to test confirmatory factor analysis, reliability and convergent validity analysis. Factor analysis revealed the two-factor structure of nine items from the original scale was replicated, and standardized path coefficients were also extracted at the similar level as the original scale. Each factor was assessed according to “perceiving your or others’ breach” with six items and “perceiving others’ betrayal” with three items. The Moral Injury Experience Scale was presumed to have three factors with 18 items, but it was validated to three factors with 15 items considering the conformity index. Each factor was assessed according to “damage by yourself” with six items, “damage by others” with three items, and “damage by others’ betrayal” with six items. The two factors of major injury events and three factors of moral injury experience showed a significant correlation with shame, guilt, and anger, thereby proving convergent validity. In the second study, an online survey was conducted to collect responses about moral injury events, moral injury experience, shame, guilt, anger, life satisfaction, general mental health, and depression from 535 participants. The same item analysis as the first study was conducted to revalidate the reliability and factor structure of the two scales. In the results of the correlation analysis that verified the criterion validity, the five subfactors of moral injury showed a significant correlation with general mental health and depression, and a near-zero correlation with life satisfaction. Compared to studies conducted overseas, this research described the similarities and differences in moral injury experience of Koreans and Americans. It then discussed the effects of moral injury on morality-related emotions and mental health and suggested application plans of these scales.