The Maudsley Violence Questionnaire: Relationship to personality and self-reported offending

The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the relationship of the two Maudsley Violence Questionnaire (MVQ) factors, ‘machismo’ and ‘acceptance’, with personality, self-esteem and self-reported offending. 785 students (male and female) between 16 and 19 years of age, were assessed using the MVQ, the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised (EPQ-R; short scale), the Culture Free Self-Esteem Inventory-2 and the Mak Self-Reported Delinquency Scale. Regression analyses performed separately for male and female participants showed that different factors predicted self-reported offending for males and females. For male participants, ‘machismo’ was the strongest predictor of self-reported violence, and EPQ-R psychoticism was the strongest predictor of self-reported non-violent offending. For female participants, ‘acceptance of violence’ was the strongest predictor of self-reported violence, and low social desirability was the strongest predictor of self-reported non-violent offending. In contrast to predictions self-esteem and neuroticism did not predict offending. The gender differences observed suggest that the cognitions and personality factors relating to offending may be different, or operate differently depending on gender. For violent offending, the strong predictive validity of the more specific subscales of the MVQ suggests that this may be a useful measure to evaluate thinking processes and treatments for violence.