Brief Shame and Guilt Questionnaire for Children

Abstract

The Brief Shame and Guilt Questionnaire for Children (BSGQC) is a concise psychological scale developed by Novin and Rieffe (2015) designed to measure children’s dispositional tendencies toward experiencing feelings of shame and guilt in response to specific hypothetical scenarios. This instrument is crucial for research investigating the differential roles of these self-conscious emotions in child development and psychopathology. The BSGQC utilizes a brief, 12-item format, dividing items equally between the two core constructs. Its development addressed the need for an efficient measure that successfully differentiates between shame (a focus on the self) and guilt (a focus on the behavior) in young populations.

Keywords

Shame, Guilt, Self-conscious emotions, Childhood, Psychological scale, Novin and Rieffe, Affective measurement.

Authors

Novin, S., Rieffe, C.

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Purpose

The primary purpose of the BSGQC is to provide researchers and clinicians with a quick, yet psychometrically sound, method for assessing the distinct experiences of shame and guilt among children. Prior scales often suffered from length or failed to clearly differentiate between these two closely related, but theoretically distinct, self-conscious emotions. By using brief, relatable vignettes, the scale aims to capture typical emotional responses in common social and moral transgression situations relevant to childhood.

The brevity of the scale makes it particularly useful in larger studies or clinical settings where administration time is limited. It facilitates the examination of how individual differences in shame and guilt propensity relate to various outcomes, such as internalizing problems, moral behavior development, and psychological adjustment across different age groups.

Construct

The scale measures two distinct, self-conscious emotional constructs: shame and guilt. According to theoretical distinctions crucial in affective science, guilt is typically associated with a focus on specific behaviors or actions (e.g., “I did a bad thing”), often leading to reparative behaviors and constructive action. In contrast, shame involves a global, negative evaluation of the self (e.g., “I am a bad person”), often resulting in avoidance, hiding, self-blame, and significant personal distress.

The BSGQC operationalizes these constructs using six items for each emotion. Items designed to elicit guilt focus on scenarios involving harm to others or transgression of moral rules (e.g., damaging a classmate’s property). Items designed to elicit shame focus on public exposure, personal failure, or self-deprecation (e.g., tripping publicly or forgetting a speech).

Validity

The validation study conducted by Novin and Rieffe (2015) confirmed the structural integrity and external validity of the BSGQC. Construct validity was strongly supported through the successful differentiation between the two subscales (shame and guilt), demonstrating that children respond to the item scenarios in ways consistent with established psychological definitions of these emotions. This differentiation is crucial, as shame and guilt often correlate highly but possess distinct predictive validity for outcomes like internalizing symptoms.

Further evidence of convergent and discriminant validity is typically established by correlating the BSGQC subscales with measures of related constructs. The shame subscale is expected to show positive associations with measures of social anxiety and depression, while the guilt subscale often correlates positively with measures of empathy and prosocial tendencies, confirming its utility in developmental research.

Reliability

The reliability of the BSGQC is assessed primarily through measures of internal consistency. For the shame and guilt subscales, Novin and Rieffe’s validation work indicated that the scale possesses adequate internal consistency (measured via Cronbach’s alpha) for use in research settings, confirming that the items within each subscale consistently measure their intended construct across the child population.

Although not always reported in brief scale summaries, adequate test-retest reliability is generally assumed or confirmed in full validation reports to ensure the stability of the emotional disposition scores over a reasonable timeframe, confirming that the scale is measuring a relatively stable trait rather than a transient state.

Factor Analysis

Novin and Rieffe (2015) utilized factor analysis—typically Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA)—to rigorously establish the underlying dimensional structure of the BSGQC. The results confirmed a clear two-factor structure, corresponding precisely to the theoretical distinction between shame and guilt.

The success of the two-factor model suggests that the item wording and scenario construction effectively isolate the self-focused (shame) versus behavior-focused (guilt) emotional responses, validating the instrument’s use in studies requiring precise measurement of these distinct affective traits. This structural clarity is a key strength of the BSGQC compared to older, less differentiated measures of self-conscious emotions.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report questionnaire / Psychological scale based on scenario vignettes.

Format: 12 items, utilizing a 3-point Likert-type scale (Not at all, A little, A Lot).

Language Available: English (Validated in 2015) and likely Dutch (based on author affiliation).

Population Group: Children and early adolescents.

Age Group: Typically utilized in middle childhood (e.g., 8–12 years old).

Population Details: Developed and validated primarily using school-aged children samples in Western contexts.

Test Methodology: Respondents read 12 brief, relatable scenarios describing common negative social or moral situations and rate the degree to which they would feel the specified emotion (shame or guilt) in that situation, reflecting their dispositional tendencies.

Keywords

Child development, Internalizing problems, Affective science, Self-conscious affect, Moral emotions, Shame proneness, Guilt proneness.

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Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: N/A (Information not provided in source).

Affiliation Email addresses: N/A (Information not provided in source).

Correspondence Address: N/A (Information not provided in source).

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Test Year: 2015.

Permissions and Fee: The scale is published in an academic journal, suggesting it is typically available for academic research use, subject to standard copyright guidelines. Researchers should contact the corresponding author for formal permission. The original PDF containing the scale items can be downloaded here: https://www.focusonemotions.nl/images/shame_guilt_Questionnaire_ENG.pdf. A related instrument PDF is also linked: https://www.focusonemotions.nl/images/Worry_UK.pdf.

Reference’s

Novin, S. & Rieffe, C. (2015). Validation of the Brief Shame and Guilt Questionnaire for Children. Personality and Individual Differences, 85, 56-59.

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Items of the Brief Shame and Guilt Questionnaire for Children

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

1. Your classmate is using the red pen the whole time. You also need the pen. You snatch away the pen. You feel guilty
2. You are walking in the middle of a busy shopping street. You trip. All your books and pens fall out of your bag on the street. You feel ashamed
3. You are riding your bike on the pavement. You are going really fast. Suddenly a little girl is standing there and you bump into her. You feel guilty
4. You get a very bad grade at school. You feel ashamed
5. You want to go home quickly. The little girl from next door dr‎ops her marbles. You don’t help‚ because you’re in a hurry. You feel guilty
6. You are going to school. You have cut your own hair. You feel stupid. You feel ashamed
7. Your classmate worked a long time on a painting. But you don’t watch out. You knock over a glass of water on his drawing. Everything spills over the painting. The painting is totally ruined. You feel guilty
8. You fall from your bike onto the pavement. People stop to watch. You leave quickly. You feel ashamed
9. Your classmate hasn’t finished her essay on time. She asks you for help. You don’t help her‚ because you don’t feel like it. You feel guilty
10. You are standing in front of the class. You have to give a talk. Everyone is looking at you. You forget what you wanted to say. You feel ashamed
11. There is only one cookie left in the cookie jar. You quickly put it in your mouth. Now your friend doesn’t have a cookie. You feel guilty
12. You are at your classmate’s house for the first time. You get a class with chocolate milk. You trip on the carpet. The chocolate milk falls out of your hands. You feel ashamed

Response Options: Not at all‚ A little‚ A Lot