Assessing the Measurement Invariance of the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 Across Black and White Americans

The Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5) is the primary tool for assessing maladaptive personality traits within the DSM-5 alternative model for personality disorders. Evidence has begun to accumulate on the replicability and measurement invariance of its five-domain factor structure across countries, clinical and community populations, and sex, but its equivalency across racial groups within a given country is largely unstudied. Attempting to replicate the evidence of noninvariance demonstrated by Bagby et al. (2022), we examined the factor structure of the PID-5 across White Americans (n = 612) and Black Americans (n = 613) within the United States. The five-domain structure emerged across both samples with reasonably congruent factor loadings. Therefore, we tested for measurement invariance using the 13-step framework advocated by Marsh et al. (2009) for personality data. We found support for the PID-5's comparability across racial groups, offering some preliminary backing for its use with Black Americans, though additional evidence is needed to clarify the conflicting results and further validate the instrument. Public Significance Statement The Personality Inventory for DSM-5 is increasingly being used to assess personality disorders, though it is unclear if it measures the same constructs in White and Black American samples. Previous evidence suggests some inconsistencies, but the evidence presented here suggests it is an applicable tool across groups. More data from diverse samples are needed to further clarify its measurement properties.