DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF THE INVENTORY OF CHILD INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES - SHORT VERSION IN TWO SLAVIC COUNTRIES

Evidence of the Five Factor model of child/adolescent personality has been demonstrated across ages, genders and countries. A culturally and age decentred instrument, the Inventory of Children's Individual Differences (ICID, Halverson et al., 2003) was designed to assess child and adolescent personality in terms of the five factors. Recently, a short version of the ICID that maintains the levels of validity and reliability previously established for the full instrument has been developed in the US (Deal et al., 2007). This paper presents short versions of the ICID suitable for cross-national comparisons and provides support for the reliability and validity of 15 reduced mid-level scales and five higher-order factors in caregiver reports of 3 to 18-year-olds from Slovenia (N = 1778) and Russia (N = 1712), and in adolescent self-reports (Slovenia, N = 419; Russia N = 1186). Effects associated with culture, gender, age and their interactions were examined. Overall, cultural differences accounted for more than 10% of variance in child personality according to parental reports and 5.5% of variance according to adolescent self-reports. In comparison with Russians, Slovenes scored higher on extraversion, conscientiousness and openness and a number of mid-level traits comprising these domains. Gender and age accounted for 2 to 3% of variance. Culture-by-gender-by-age interaction indicated different patterns of personality development in boys and girls of two Slavic countries.