Is the Assessment of Personality Comparable in Persons Who Have and Have Not Experienced Depressive, Anxiety, and Substance Use Disorders? An Examination of Measurement Invariance.

Numerous studies have focused on characterizing personality differences between individuals with and without psychopathology. For drawing valid conclusions for these comparisons, the personality instruments used must demonstrate psychometric equivalence. However, we are unaware of any studies that examine measurement invariance in personality across individuals with and without psychopathology. This study conducted tests of measurement invariance for positive emotionality, negative emotionality, and disinhibition across individuals with and without histories of depressive, anxiety, and substance use disorders. We found consistent evidence that positive emotionality, negative emotionality, and disinhibition were assessed equivalently across all comparisons with each demonstrating strict invariance. Overall, results suggest that comparisons of personality measures between diagnostic groups satisfy the assumption of measurement invariance and these scales represent the same psychological constructs. Thus, mean-level comparisons across these groups are valid tests.