Validation of the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire Short Form (MPQ-SF) for use in the context of international education

PLoS One. 2020 Dec 28;15(12):e0244425. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0244425. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

The Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ) is one of the most widely used instruments for measuring individuals' intercultural competences. The original version consists of 91 items, divided into five subscales, and has been shown to predict attitudes, behavior, and outcomes in a variety of intercultural contexts. Recently, a 40-item short form of the MPQ was developed (MPQ-SF), which may be particularly useful in settings in which time or survey space are limited, or where respondent drop-out is likely to occur. For example, the MPQ-SF would be a valuable tool for assessing longitudinal development of multicultural personality traits in training or educational settings. A prerequisite for such research is to establish measurement invariance of the MPQ-SF between different respondent groups, as well as across time points. Using a sample of students in an international university program (n = 519), the present study examines how the scales perform among male and female respondents, between students of Western and Non-Western background, and across two time points, five months apart. Based on our findings, we conclude that all five subscales of the MPQ-SF display sufficient measurement invariance to be reliably used in this and similar contexts, in comparative as well as longitudinal study designs.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Cultural Diversity*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • International Educational Exchange
  • Longitudinal Studies
  • Male
  • Personality
  • Students / psychology*
  • Surveys and Questionnaires
  • Young Adult

Grants and funding

The study was supported by the Community for Learning and Innovation (CLI) at Erasmus University Rotterdam, through a research fellowship awarded to the first author (JH). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.