Assessing guilt in childhood: psychometric validation of self- and parent-report measures

Abstract The aim of the present study introduces and validates the Interpersonal Guilt Rating Scale for Children (IGRS-17C) and the Interpersonal Guilt Rating Scale – Child Informant (IGRS-18CI), two novel instruments grounded in Control-Mastery Theory (CMT) and designed to assess interpersonal guilt in children and early adolescents aged 7 to 14 years. A total of 309 parent–child dyads completed the measures, together with the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL/6–18) and the Youth Self-Report (YSR/11–18). Exploratory factor analyses supported a four-factor structure for both inventories, identifying Separation/Disloyalty guilt, Survivor guilt, Self-Hate/Burdening guilt, and Omnipotent Responsibility guilt. Both instruments demonstrated adequate reliability and cross-informant convergent validity, as IGRS-18CI factors significantly predicted the corresponding guilt dimensions reported by children on the IGRS-17C. Importantly, Self-Hate/Burdening guilt emerged as the most robust correlate of psychopathology, showing associations with both internalizing and externalizing symptoms as assessed by the CBCL/6–18 and YSR/11–18. Overall, these findings open a promising line of research, with theoretical implications for advancing the understanding of moral development in childhood and clinical significance for the assessment and treatment of developmental psychopathology.