Reliability and concurrent validation of the IPIP Big-Five factor markers in China: Consistencies in factor structure between Internet-obtained heterosexual and homosexual samples

Previous studies have suggested the cross-cultural generalizability of a 5-factor structure for personality traits. In this article, we analyzed the utility of 2 versions (100-item and 50-item) of the IPIP Big-Five factor markers in both heterosexual (N = 633) and homosexual (N = 437) samples in China. Factor analysis within versions showed that both versions of these IPIP measures showed clear 5-factor orthogonal structures that were nearly identical to the American structure in both subject samples. The reliabilities of the five factors were quite high except for the 50-item measure of Agreeableness. The part-whole correlations between the 100-item and 50-item factors were high, as were the factor congruence coefficients between the heterosexual and the homosexual samples. Both versions of the IPIP Big-Five factor markers were strongly correlated with the scales from the Big-Five Inventory (BFI: John, Donahue, & Kentle, 1991), thus providing some concurrent validation in a Chinese context.