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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Quantitative Psychology and Measurement
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1517623
Psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of the Personality Assessment
Provisionally accepted
Mauro Paulino 1,2,3*
Mariana Moniz 1,3
Octávio Moura 1,3
Daniel Rijo 1,4
Leslie C. Morey 5
Mário R. Simões 1,3,4- 1 Center for Research in Neuropsychology and Cognitive and Behavioral Intervention, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
- 2 Universidade Europeia, Faculty of Health Sciences, Lisbon, Portugal
- 3 Psychological Assessment and Psychometrics Laboratory (PsyAssessmentLab), Coimbra, Portugal
- 4 Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
- 5 College of Arts & Sciences, Texas A&M University Central Texas, Killeen, Texas, United States
Although several factor analytic studies have investigated the factor structure of the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI), no consensus has been reached regarding the best factor solution, either considering the 11 clinical scales or the 22 full scales. Whereas some studies have found that a two-factor solution for the clinical scales and a four-factor solution for the 22 scales were the most parsimonious factor structures, other studies suggested different factor models (e.g., a three-factor solution for the 11 clinical scales, and a three-or five-factor solution for the 22 full scales). The present study aimed to investigate the factor structure of the Portuguese version of the PAI in a sample of 900 participants (aged 18-74 years, 57.7% female). Several factor models (uncorrelated, correlated, hierarchical, and bifactor) were examined, and the results supported a bifactor model with two first-order factors for the 11 clinical scales (the bifactor model with three first-order factor also revealed an adequate fit) and a three-factor model for the 22 full scales. Comparisons between the Portuguese factor structure and other international versions of the PAI were examined. Implications and directions for future research on PAI's dimensionality are discussed.
Keywords: Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI), confirmatory factor analysis, Principal Component Analysis, Portuguese version, psychometric properties
Received: 20 Nov 2024; Accepted: 24 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Paulino, Moniz, Moura, Rijo, Morey and Simões. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Mauro Paulino, Center for Research in Neuropsychology and Cognitive and Behavioral Intervention, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal
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