THE UTILITY OF THE NEO-PI-3 IN A SAMPLE OF SOUTH AFRICAN ADOLESCENTS

Abstract

Psychological tests, particularly personality tests, are routinely employed for career guidance and counselling, in university selection procedures and therapeutic settings with adolescents. The NEO-PI-3 is the newest revision in the NEO family of personality instruments and has been revised to suit adolescent populations. This research explored the utility of the NEO-PI-3 in a convenience sample of 329 learners from a public school in Johannesburg, South Africa. Utility was established using a mixed methods approach where internal consistency reliability and construct validity of the NEO-PI-3 was explored using Cronbach’s alpha and exploratory factor analysis. Learners were also asked to comment on the appropriateness of the NEO-PI-3 items. These comments were subjected to thematic analysis. Reliability coefficients for the NEO-PI-3 scales were variable. The factor structure for this sample was incongruent with cross-cultural samples but a five factor solution resembling the normative sample was found once the Compliance facet was removed. 36.2% of the sample reported experiencing difficulty with understanding words and items on the NEO-PI-3. The most dominant theme identified amongst the learners was a lack of understanding of items and words. This was followed by problems with item construction, questionnaire length and the repetitive nature of items. The results suggest that the NEO-PI-3 may not be used in its current form in the South African context. Further research and possible test adaption would be needed before using the instrument.