Assessing mental health in Vietnam with the Personality Assessment Inventory: Cross-cultural comparability

ABSTRACT

This study examined the cross-cultural comparability of the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI: Morey, 1991) in Vietnam, employing a sample of 128 nonclinical Vietnamese native speakers and 53 bilingual Vietnamese/English speakers. The Vietnamese version demonstrated comparable internal consistency to that obtained in the original PAI US standardization sample, with Cronbach's αs ranging from .41 to .94 and similar trends in reliability across scales. Exploratory factor analysis yielded factors replicating components commonly obtained in prior studies of the PAI. Vietnamese-English bilingual subjects who completed both the Vietnamese adaption and the original PAI showed few differences in their responses across versions. The Vietnamese sample generally scored higher than the US standardization sample on the majority of PAI scales; however, none of these mean scores were elevated to levels of clinical significance. Covariance analyses suggested that a negative response style drove many of these differences, potentially indicating cultural differences in approaches to self-reporting emotional distress. Methodological limitations, potential mediating factors, and future research directions are discussed.

Keywords:

• Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI)
• personality
• mental health assessment
• Vietnam
• validity

Disclosure statement

Dr. Morey is the author of the Personality Assessment Inventory and derives royalties from its sale.

Notes on contributors

Mai-Phuong Bach-Nguyen received her bachelor's degree from the Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences at Brown University, Providence. She will enroll in the M.S.Ed program in Counseling and Mental Health Services at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education in 2018. Her research interests lie in clinical assessments, counseling interventions, sociocultural issues in counseling, and positive youth development.

Leslie C. Morey, PhD, is George T. and Gladys Abell Professor of Psychology at Texas A&M University. His research focuses upon personality and psychopathology assessment and measurement, and diagnosis and classification of mental disorders.