Introduction: The Moral Identity Scale (MIS) measures the construct of moral identity – internalization and symbolization. This study aims to translate and validate the original English version of MIS to the Malay language version. Methods: The 10 items of MIS (five items of symbolization and five items of internalization) were translated to the Malay language through forward and backward procedures. A total of 388 youth-aged participants were involved in this online survey. Participants’ age ranged from 18-24 years old. More than half were females. Results: The construct of moral identity was maintained with the re-modeling of internalization. The final model suggested retaining the three internalization items and five symbolization items. Discriminant validity and the construct reliability of the two factors were satisfactory (symbolization=0.81, internalization=0.69). Internal consistencies indicated acceptable Cronbach’s alpha values for both symbolization (0.85) and internalization (0.81). Test-retest Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) was good and satisfactory (internalization=0.79 and symbolization=0.81). Conclusion: The Malay version of MIS is a reliable tool and free from cultural bias which is useful to be applied in a public health-related program.
A mature sense of moral identity influences psycho-social behaviour and leads to less engagement in risk behaviour activities such as smoking. This study aims to identify whether moral identity (internalization, symbolization) and gender are predictive factors of emotional valence in response to smoking and non-smoking images. Youth-aged participants (N=347) viewed a series of smoking and non-smoking images and rated their emotional valence by using the Self-assessment Manikin. They also responded to the internalization and symbolization items on the Moral Identity Scale. The combination of gender and internalization factors explained the significant variance of emotional valence in smoking (12%) and non-smoking (7%) respectively. Participants with low internalization exhibited 2.4 odds to experience high emotional valence from the smoking images than those with high internalization. Internalization also indicated a significant predictor of emotional valence in non-smoking images. Internalization is a dominant trait rather than symbolization in predicting smoking and non-smoking behaviour. Gender interplays with internalization to provide an insightful explanation of emotional variance in smoking and non-smoking behaviour. Implication on public health program among youth-aged group is highlighted.
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