Evaluating the Appropriateness of College-Age Norms for Use With Adolescents on the NEO Personality Inventory—Revised

The NEO Personality Inventory—Revised (NEO PI-R) measures normal personality characteristics and has demonstrated appropriate score reliability and validity. It is normed for two groups of individuals, college-age individuals 17 to 20 years old and adults 21 and older. Often, personality instruments normed on older individuals have been used with adolescent populations. To examine the appropriateness of this decision, the current study explored the differences between an adolescent sample (n = 79) and a college-age sample (n = 80) on the 30 facets and the five domains of the NEO PI-R. Group differences on the facet and domain scales were analyzed using descriptive discriminant analysis. Results indicated that the adolescent and college groups differed on each of the five domains. As expected, the groups also scored differently using the aggregated domain-level variables as the outcome measures. Suggestions for future research include the development of normative data for the adolescent population.