Are cross-cultural comparisons of personality profiles meaningful? Differential item and facet functioning in the Revised NEO Personality Inventory.
Authors:
- A. Timothy ChurchACA. Timothy Church
- Juan M. AlvarezJAJuan M. Alvarez
- Nhu T. Q. MaiNMNhu T. Q. Mai
- Brian F. FrenchBFBrian F. French
- Marcia S. KatigbakMKMarcia S. Katigbak
- Fernando A. OrtizFOFernando A. Ortiz
- 1 November 2011
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Psychological Association (APA) in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
- Vol. 101 (5) , 1068-1089
Abstract
Measurement invariance is a prerequisite for confident cross-cultural comparisons of personality profiles. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis was used to detect differential item functioning (DIF) in factor loadings and intercepts for the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (P. T. Costa, Jr., & R. R. McCrae, 1992) in comparisons of college students in the United States (N = 261), Philippines (N = 268), and Mexico (N = 775). About 40%-50% of the items exhibited some form of DIF and item-level noninvariance often carried forward to the facet level at which scores are compared. After excluding DIF items, some facet scales were too short or unreliable for cross-cultural comparisons, and for some other facets, cultural mean differences were reduced or eliminated. The results indicate that considerable caution is warranted in cross-cultural comparisons of personality profiles.Keywords
Funding Information
- National Institute of Mental Health (MH59941)
- National Science Foundation (0953940)
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