Reliability and Validity for the Measurement of Moral Disengagement in Pharmacists

Background: Social cognitive theory describes a process in which behavior can be disengaged from moral self control through eight different mechanisms. These mechanisms were used for the development of a new scale for measuring moral disengagement (Moral Disengagement Inventory, or MDI) in pharmacists.

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to assess the reliability and validation of a scale to measure pharmacists' moral disengagement toward patients who exhibit behaviors directly or indirectly leading to their disease condition, such as an asthmatic patient who smokes or a non-compliant asthmatic patient.

Methods: A self-administered survey called the Moral Disengagement Instrument (MDI) was developed for this study. Once the MDI was designed, the items were evaluated for content validity, readability and face validity. The reliability of the developed measures was assessed. The convergent and discriminant validity of the moral disengagement constructs were tested using confirmatory factor analysis.

Results: The reliability coefficient for the MDI for the asthmatic smoker was 0.814 and reliability coefficient for the MDI for the non-compliant asthmatic patient was 0.782. Evidence supporting validity of the MDI was provided in a confirmatory factor analysis.

Conclusions: The Moral Disengagement Instrument (MDI), developed as a tool for measuring pharmacists' disengagement beliefs for a smoker asthmatic patient and a non-compliant asthmatic patient, was found to be reliable and valid.