Psychometric propierties of the personalyty assessment inventory (pai) in Mexico

Abstract

 Nevertheless, the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) has become an important option around the world; there is obviously a need to have a valid translation and adaptation of this psychological instrument in Mexico. This study presents preliminary psychometric properties of the PAI. A total of 961 individuals, from four Mexican cities (Aguascalientes, Distrito Federal, Mazatlan y Pachuca Hidalgo), answered the “Spanish for Mexico” version of the PAI, adapted and reproduced by a special permission granted by the Editorial PAR. The average age of the participants was 23.5 years old (SD= 9,6). The standardized psychometric procedures used were: discriminative capacity of the items; reliability by Cronbach´s alpha; Exploratory Factor Analysis and finally Confirmatory Factor Analysis with AMOS. Based on the AMOS results from the Mexican sample, 123 items were eliminated because they did not reached statistical values in order to be included in the model. As a result we retained a shortened (adapted and valid) version of the PAI with 221 items. We conclude that cross-cultural translations of the PAI should be carefully reviewed in light of Confirmatory Factor Analysis.