Mapping Young Minds: Adapting and Validating a Brief Big Five Inventory for Chinese Children in Upper Elementary School

ABSTRACT This paper describes the adaptation and validation of a brief Big Five Inventory for upper elementary school children in China. Two independent samples, comprising 1884 and 2245 children from Grade 4 to Grade 6, were used to pilot and cross‐validate the adapted questionnaire. We first explored the underlying factor structure and composite reliability of the questionnaire, which included five hypothesized factors as follows: Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness. Additional evidence for validity was obtained by examining measurement invariance across gender and grade level. Results revealed that the hypothesized five‐factor model demonstrated a satisfactory model fit. Each factor demonstrated sufficient to satisfactory composite reliability ( ρ c range = 0.70–0.82). The interfactor correlations were generally satisfactory, with absolute values ranging from 0.29 to 0.80. Regarding measurement invariance, scalar invariance was found across gender and grade level. Latent mean comparisons indicated that girls reported higher Agreeableness and Neuroticism but lower Extraversion than boys. With regard to differences across grade level, children in Grade 5 reported lower Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness than their peers in Grade 4. Moreover, children in Grade 5 reported lower Agreeableness and Conscientiousness than those in Grade 6. Accordingly, this child version of the brief Big Five Inventory can be seen as a valid and reliable measure that enriches the methodological repertoire for personality research and allows the investigation of personality traits among upper elementary school children.