Short Version of the Big Five Inventory: Testing for Factorial Invariance across Parents with Normal and Exceptional Children

Purpose: This study aims at testing the factor structure and the invariance of the measurement of Short Version of Big Five Inventory between two groups of parents, those with normal children and parents with exceptional ones. Methods: 800 parents (400 parents with normal children and 400 parents with exceptional children), responded the short version of the Big Five Inventory of Personality Index, Satisfaction with Life Scale and Positive and Negative Affect Schedule. To examine the factor structure of BFI-SV, the confirmatory factor analysis has been used; to evaluate the BFI-SV Invariant factor structure in two groups of parents, multi-groups confirmatory factor analysis was used, and finally, to evaluate the convergent validity of subscales of the BFI-SV, the correlation coefficients among personality factors with Mental Well-Being Scales were used. Confirmatory factor analysis fitting indices, confirmed the existence of five factors, neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness and openness in two groups of parents. BFI-SV cross group validity results showed the equivalence of five-factor structure of BFI-SV in two groups Findings: The correlation coefficients between personality traits in BFI-SV with the mental well-being scales, confirmed the convergent validity of CISS-SF. Conclusion:  The results of present study show the equivalence between factor structure of list of short version of five big inventories of personality and the validity of this list to assess personality traits in two groups of parents.