Purpose Moral courage refers to the conviction to take action on one’s ethical beliefs despite the risk of adverse consequences. This study aimed to evaluate correlations between social desirability scores and moral courage scores among medical residents and fellows, and to explore gender- and specialty-based differences in moral courage scores. Methods In April 2018, the Moral Courage Scale for Physicians (MCSP), the Professional Moral Courage (PMC) scale and the Marlowe-Crowne scale to measure social desirability were administered to 87 medical residents from Hospital Alemán in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Results The Cronbach α coefficients were 0.78, 0.74, and 0.81 for the Marlowe-Crowne, MCSP, and PMC scales, respectively. Correlation analysis showed that moral courage scores were weakly correlated with social desirability scores, while both moral courage scales were strongly correlated with each other. Physicians who were training in a surgical specialty showed lower moral courage scores than nonsurgical specialty trainees, and men from any specialty tended to have lower moral courage scores than women. Specifically, individuals training in surgical specialties ranked lower on assessments of the “multiple values,” “endurance of threats,” and “going beyond compliance” dimensions of the PMC scale. Men tended to rank lower than women on the “multiple values,” “moral goals,” and “endurance of threats” dimensions. Conclusion There was a poor correlation between 2 validated moral courage scores and social desirability scores among medical residents and fellows in Argentina. Conversely, both moral courage tools showed a close correlation and concordance, suggesting that these scales are reasonably interchangeable.

中文翻译：

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阿根廷医疗居民和同胞的道德勇气得分与社会期望得分之间的相关性

目的道德勇气是指坚信即使有不利后果的风险也要根据自己的道德信念采取行动。这项研究旨在评估医疗居民和同伴之间的社会满意度得分与道德勇气得分之间的相关性，并探讨基于性别和专业的道德勇气得分差异。方法2018年4月，对来自阿根廷布宜诺斯艾利斯医院Alemán的87位医疗居民实施了医师道德勇气量表（MCSP），职业道德勇气量表（PMC）和Marlowe-Crowne量表，以衡量社会满意度。结果Marlowe-Crowne量表，MCSP量表和PMC量表的Cronbachα系数分别为0.78、0.74和0.81。相关分析表明，道德勇气得分与社会期望得分之间的相关性很弱，而两个道德勇气量表之间却有着很强的相关性。接受过外科专业训练的医师显示出比非外科专业受训者更低的道德勇气得分，并且来自任何专业的男性都比女性具有更低的道德勇气得分。具体而言，接受外科专业培训的人员在PMC量表的“多重价值”，“威胁承受力”和“超越合规性”维度的评估中排名较低。在“多重价值”，“道德目标”和“承受威胁的能力”方面，男性的排名往往低于女性。结论在阿根廷的医疗居民和同乡中，两个有效的道德勇气得分与社会期望得分之间的相关性较差。相反，这两种道德勇气工具都显示出紧密的相关性和一致性，