Moral emotions are experienced in daily life and are crucial for mediating appropriate social behaviors, as they prevent individuals from committing transgressions. In this study, caregivers of 377 children aged between 2.5 and 6.5 years old completed the Moral Emotions Questionnaire (MEQ), a parent report aimed to separately identify the presence of shame, guilt, and pride behaviors in early childhood. To validate this newly developed questionnaire, a confirmatory factor analysis and measurement invariance were conducted, and internal consistency, and concurrent validity were tested. Outcomes confirmed that the three moral emotions can be individually identified through the MEQ, even at such an early age. The MEQ scales showed acceptable internal consistencies and the associations between the three moral emotions and externalizing behaviors, internalizing behaviors, and social competence were in accordance with previous research, therefore confirming concurrent validity.

道德情绪在日常生活中经历，对于调解适当的社会行为至关重要，因为它们可以防止个人犯下违法行为。在这项研究中，377 名 2.5 至 6.5 岁儿童的看护人完成了道德情绪问卷 (MEQ)，这是一份旨在分别识别儿童早期羞耻、内疚和骄傲行为的家长报告。为了验证这个新开发的问卷，进行了验证性因素分析和测量不变性，并测试了内部一致性和同时效度。结果证实，即使在这么小的年龄，也可以通过 MEQ 单独识别三种道德情绪。MEQ 量表显示出可接受的内部一致性以及三种道德情绪与外化行为之间的关联，