A Psychometric Examination of the French Translations of NEO-PI-R and NEO-FFI

The French translations of the NEO-PI-R and NEO-FFI (Rolland & Petot, 1994) were examined to assess their equivalence to the original English-language instruments. Two French samples were employed: college students (N = 447) responding anonymously and military recruits (N = 268) responding as part of their military selection process. Internal reliability of domains on both instruments were highly similar to the U.S. normative group, although some NEO-PI-R facets were not. Factor structures of the NEO-PI-R at the facet level and the NEO-FFI at the item level yielded high congruence coefficients when target rotated to previously published factor structures from U.S., Canadian, and German samples. Recently developed validity scales (Schinka, Kinder, & Kremer, 1997) were effective at differentiating the self-enhancing response set of the military recruits. Concerns that a positive presentation response set yields a 6-factor rather than a 5-factor solution were not supported by these French samples.