Background: Delinquency is one of the social phenomena that currently besets societies and imposes heavy expenses on them annually. This study aimed to study the relationship between delinquency based on conduct disorder and character type with the mediating role of moral intelligence in the adolescents of Kerman City Correctional Center.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive-analytical study. The statistical population included 66 adolescents from Kerman City Correctional Center, selected using random sampling. The research tools included a Conduct Disorder Questionnaire (CDQ), a character-type questionnaire (Hans Eysenck, 1963), and a moral intelligence questionnaire (Link & Keil, 2005). Data were analyzed using SPSS 28, Smart PLS3, the Parson correlation coefficient, and confirmatory factor analysis.
Results: There was a direct and significant relationship between moral intelligence and character types (path coefficient (PC) = 1.502, T = 2.096, P < 0.05), between conduct disorder and moral intelligence (PC = 0.996, T = 1173.19, P < 0.01), and between moral intelligence and character types (PC = 1.502, T = 2.096, P < 0.05) of the delinquent adolescents. There was also an indirect significant relation between conduct disorder based on character types and ethical intelligence mediation (PC = -1.495, T = 2.095, P < 0.05).
Conclusion: We can impact the relationship between conduct disorder and character type by increasing moral intelligence to reduce conduct disorder, neuroticism, and psychosis in delinquent adolescents.