Toward a culture-sensitive approach to playfulness research: Development of the Adult Playfulness Trait Scale-Chinese version and an alternative measurement model

The growing global interest in playfulness research calls for increasing research cross-pollination that often necessitates instrument translation with cultural sensitivity. Taking a collaborative and iterative translation approach, we developed a Chinese version of the Adult Playfulness Trait Scale–an instrument originally developed and validated in North America and increasingly used in international applications. Reliability and structural validity of the translated scale were examined using data from a national adult sample of Chinese adults (N = 1561). The results confirmed the scale’s composite reliability and a common playfulness factor shared by four sub-dimensions. Higher-order confirmatory factor analyses validated via split-sample testing revealed a distinct factorial configuration, indicating culture-specific characteristics in Chinese participants’ cognitive organization of the construct—particularly the critical role of a free, non-conforming attribute in the expression of playfulness in Chinese society. Underlying cultural causes are discussed as are implications for cultural adaptation of translated instruments and cross-cultural playfulness research.