Comparing English-Language and Chinese-Language Assessment of DSM-5 Personality Disorders and Interpersonal Problems in Chinese Bilingual Speakers

Abstract

A review of the literature on Chinese translations of Western self-report personality disorder assessment measures indicates the need to empirically evaluate the validity of assessing Western personality disorder constructs in Chinese language and culture. The current study presents a novel approach to examining this critical question in cross-cultural clinical assessment science and practice. One hundred and ninety-nine (199) Mandarin Chinese and English bilingual participants (92 males and 107 females) provided both English and Chinese self-report ratings on the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems – Short Circumplex (IIP-SC) and The Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire − 4+ (PDQ-4+). The similarities and differences in associations between Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders—5th edition (DSM-5) personality disorders and interpersonal problems assessed across languages were examined. The structural summary method (SSM) for circumplex data and a bootstrapping methodology were used to compute confidence intervals around SSM parameters to analyze and compare the interpersonal problems profiles for each personality disorder scale (e.g. narcissistic) derived from English-language and Chinese-language data. The current study found highly similar interpersonal profiles for personality disorder scales assessed in English and Chinese, suggesting Western DSM-5 personality disorder constructs generally emphasize the same interpersonal problems in Chinese language and culture. The method employed in this study also has implications for understanding whether translated measures capture the same personality constructs.