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Measuring Virtues in Chinese Culture: Development of a Chinese Moral Character Questionnaire

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Abstract

This paper describes the development and validation of the Chinese Moral Character Questionnaire (CMCQ), an instrument that measures seven key moral character attributes highlighted in Confucian culture. The CMCQ was developed based on both expert review and focus group interviews with 39 Chinese university students in mainland China and Hong Kong. Its psychometric properties were examined with a sample of 565 university students in Hong Kong. Exploratory factor analysis retained 46 items and seven factors and the seven-factor structure was further validated by confirmatory factor analysis. We found that CMCQ subscales had satisfactory internal consistency (α ranged from 0.78 to 0.85). Convergent validity of the CMCQ subscales was supported by their positive correlations with life satisfaction and positive affect, and their negative correlations with negative affect, depression, anxiety, and stress, respectively. All virtues had positive correlations with individual strengths. The findings indicate that the CMCQ is a promising tool for measuring the development of moral competence in Confucian culture, an important supplement to the character strength framework.

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Acknowledgements

This paper and the project “Development and Validation of a Chinese Character Strengths Questionnaire” were financially supported by The Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (Project code: 1-ZE37). The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest with any financial organizations regarding the material reported in this manuscript.

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  1. Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hunghom, Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China

    Lu Yu

  2. Department of Psychology and Counselling, University of Central Arkansas, Conway, AR, USA

    Dong Xie

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Yu, L., Xie, D. Measuring Virtues in Chinese Culture: Development of a Chinese Moral Character Questionnaire. Applied Research Quality Life 16, 51–69 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-019-09745-w

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