Preliminary findings of confirmatory factor analysis of the MOLEST Scale and cognitive distortions regarding child sexual abuse in male university students in Türkiye

The prevalence of cognitive distortions in sex offenders is a significant risk factor for reoffending. This finding is based mostly on research with adult male sex offenders. The number of studies conducted with community samples on this subject is quite low. Research with community samples suggests that cognitive distortions that support sexual offending may be present in all people, but which ones are more triggering for sexual offending? The aim of this study was to conduct a confirmatory factor analysis of the MOLEST Scale among university students and to adapt it to the Turkish language. The MOLEST Scale was conducted via online and face-to-face to 18–25 aged university students in Türkiye from March 2019 to April 2020. A total sample of 654 young-adult male individuals were divided for validity and EFA (n = 302), reliability (n = 151), and CFA (n = 201). The Turkish MOLEST Scale was found to have a three-factor structure, namely Rationalization of Offending Behavior (α = 0.89), Minimization of Responsibility for Offending (α = 0.74), and Minimization of Victim Harm (α = 0.83). In addition, a good scale internal consistency coefficient (α = 0.94) was also obtained. The goodness of fit index values met the fit requirements of the 18-item scale with a three-factor structure. The two-half reliability coefficients for the subscales were 0.88, 0.68 and 0.86, respectively. This study revealed that cognitive distortions related to child sexual abuse, as measured by the MOLEST Scale, can be identified among individuals without a history of sexual offenses.