Personality assessment in a diverse urban sample

Area of Science:

• Psychological assessment
• Personality psychology
• Sociology

Background:

• The revised NEO personality inventory (NEO-PI-R) is a widely used measure of personality traits.
• Ensuring its psychometric properties in diverse populations is crucial for accurate assessment.
• Previous research has not fully explored the NEO-PI-R's factor structure in socioeconomically varied and ethnically diverse samples.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the data quality and replicability of the NEO-PI-R factor structure.
• To assess the NEO-PI-R's performance in a diverse sample varying in ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and literacy.
• To evaluate the reliability of personality trait assessment in socioeconomically diverse populations.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from 546 participants in the Healthy aging in neighborhoods of diversity across the life span study.
• Participants were African American (58%) and white (42%) urban dwellers, with 51% living below 125% of the federal poverty line.
• Assessed NEO-PI-R data quality (validity, acquiescence, internal consistency), factor congruence, and readability via telephone administration.

Main Results:

• Excellent data quality and factor congruence were observed in the overall sample.
• Literacy emerged as the most significant predictor of data quality.
• While Openness to Experience and Extraversion showed slightly weaker structures in lower socioeconomic status groups, overall factor congruence supported replication beyond chance levels, even with lower literacy.

Conclusions:

• The NEO-PI-R demonstrates robust data quality and replicability across diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds.
• Personality traits can be reliably assessed using the NEO-PI-R in socioeconomically diverse populations, including those experiencing poverty.
• Literacy is a key factor influencing data quality in personality assessments.