[A transcultural study of personality in Mexican and English children]

The Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ-J) was translated into Spanish and was completed by 436 boys and 405 girls from various schools from the southern area of Mexico City, aged 12.12 +/- 1.91 and 11.93 +/- 1.94 years, respectively. The aims of the study were firstly, to show that the factors of psychoticism (P), extraversion (E), neuroticism (N) and social desirability (L) were present and measurable in Mexico. Secondly, to present a valid scoring key for this country, with appropriate items and reasonably high alpha reliabilities. Finally, to make comparisons between Mexican and English children, using only items in common to both scoring keys. Results showed that factor comparisons ranged from 0.91 to 0.99. Sex differences were the usual ones found in most cross-cultural studies, i.e. boys scoring higher than girls on P and E, but lower on N and L. Cross-cultural comparisons found that Mexican children scored higher on E and L than their English counterparts, but lower (for girls only) on N. The four factors were deemed to be measurable in Mexico as well as in England.