Gender invariance of the five-factor model of personality among adolescents: A mean and covariance structure analysis approach

The study used the mean and covariance structure analysis approach to test for gender invariance for the five-factor model of personality. The participants were 220 female and 218 male adolescents, between 15 and 17 years of age. All participants completed a five-factor model self-rating questionnaire, which had five items for each factor. The results supported configural invariance. All the extraversion, conscientiousness, and emotional stability items, and all but one agreeableness item showed metric and scalar invariance. For openness, three items failed to show metric and scalar invariance. Apart from openness, all the other four latent factors showed invariance for latent variances. All the mean scores for the latent factors showed invariance. Overall, therefore, there was fairly good support for gender invariance for the five-factor model. (c) 2006 Published by Elsevier Ltd.