Constructing a short form of the hierarchical personality inventory for children (HiPIC): the HiPIC‐30

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Children's personality traits are invaluable predictors of concurrent and later mental and physical health. Several validated longer inventories for assessing the widely recognized Five‐Factor Model of personality in children are available, but short forms are scarce. This study aimed at constructing a 30‐item form of the 144‐item Hierarchical Personality Inventory for Children (HiPIC) (Mervielde & De Fruyt, ). Participants were 1543 children aged 6–12 years (sample 1) and 3895 children aged 8 years (sample 2). Sample 1 completed the full HiPIC, from which we constructed the HiPIC‐30, and the Child Behaviour Checklist (Achenbach, ). Sample 2 completed the HiPIC‐30. The HiPIC‐30 personality domains correlated over r = .90 with the full HiPIC domains, had good Cronbach's alphas and correlated similarly with CBCL behaviour problems and gender as the full HiPIC. The factor structures of the HiPIC‐30 were convergent across samples, but the imagination factor was not clear‐cut. We conclude that the HiPIC‐30 is a reliable and valid questionnaire for the Five‐Factor personality traits in children.