Moral disengagement. We used the 14-item
version of the moral disengagement scale that has
been specifically designed and validated for elementary
school children [Caprara et al., 1995]. The items
describe individual’s readiness to construe injurious
conduct as serving righteous purposes, masquerading
censored activities by palliative language or rendering
them benign by advantageous comparison, minimizing
the harmful effects of one’s detrimental conduct,
and devaluing those who are maltreated. Children
were asked to rate the strength of their endorsement
or rejection of moral exoneration of detrimental conduct
on a 5-point Likert-type scale, from 1 = strongly
disagree to 5 = strongly agree (see Results section for
confirmatory factor analysis).